Accountability in Nursing Practice ANMC

Question: Discuss about the Accountability in Nursing Practicefor ANMC. Answer: Introduction Huntingdons disease is not terminally ill disease, so the sanctity of life should be chosen over the quality of life. The Sanctity of life says that human life is worth and it is unethical to end a persons life, even if the quality of life is hampered. The duty of a nurse and health care professionals is to save and preserve the life of the people no matter what the condition of the patient is. In the case scenario, the 55 year old lady wants to end her life as her quality of life has deteriorated as she is suffering from advanced Huntingdons Disease. Under the Australian Nursing Midwifery Council (ANMC) Code of Ethics, the nurses have the duty to act in ways where they should not inflict evil or cause any kind of harm to other called principle of nonmaleficence (Birks et al. 2016). However, they face ethical issues whether a nurse or healthcare professional should respect the autonomy and dignity of the patients where they are willing to die. The nurses have an ethical consideration to act in the interests of the patients and so they face ethical dilemmas in getting the correct balance between the patients and professional rights. According to the principleof beneficence under the ANMC Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia, the nurses should act to provide benefit to others (Humphrey and Chiarella 2015). The beneficent actions include removal of harms or to help prevent actions that improves the conditions of others. They have moral obligation to refrain from casing harm to others, but at the same time they have an obligation to assist their patients in fulfilling their interests. It is unethical to help a person to deliberately end ones life. However, autonomy and liberty are the sources of human dignity that needs to be respected by a nurse while providing care to their patients. These two aspects add value to the life of a person and it is wrong to assist a person in ending ones life. The right to autonomy implies that the people have the right to control their lives and engage in decision-making with the respect to their treatment. The nurses and healthcare professionals have a duty to acknowledge their right and work towards the best interests of the patients (Johnstone 2015). The nurses should respect for human life and takes into account the quality of life and dignity of the patients. The healthcare professionals and nurses should act in the way they can help and save the life of the patient. In the case scenario, the female patient wants to end her life and as a nurse, it is the duty to save the life of the patient, even if the female patient wants to die. Under the Code of Ethics in medical ethics, the nurses have a duty to respect the culture of safety in nursing and ethical management of information that promote the health and well-being of the patients (Doran et al. 2015). Although a person has the right to choose end of life, nurses have a duty to preserve and save patients life promoting overall health and well-being. References Birks, M., Davis, J., Smithson, J. and Cant, R., 2016. Registered nurse scope of practice in Australia: an integrative review of the literature.Contemporary Nurse,52(5), pp.522-543. Doran, E., Fleming, J., Jordens, C., Stewart, C.L., Letts, J. and Kerridge, I.H., 2015. Managing ethical issues in patient care and the need for clinical ethics support.Australian Health Review,39(1), pp.44-50. Humphrey, C. and Chiarella, M., 2015. Legal frameworks for practice in Australia and New Zealand.Midwifery: Preparation for Practice, p.304. Johnstone, M.J., 2015.Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier Health Sciences.