Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay

Assignment Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
2 – 3-page paper due on the ethical and legal implications of the scenario below:
“You see another nurse practitioner writing a prescription for her husband, who is not a patient of the nurse practitioner. The prescription is for a narcotic. You can’t decide whether or not to report the incident.”
• Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family. Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay.
• Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario you selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state.
• Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your decision making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose your error. Be sure to justify your explanation.
• Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize medication errors.

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References:
Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.-a). Code of federal regulations. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1300/1300_01.ht m
Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (2017). List of errorprone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations. Retrieved from https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/errorprone-abbreviations-list •
Ladd, E., & Hoyt, A. (2016). Shedding light on nurse practitioner prescribing. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12(3), 166–173. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2015.09.17
Rosenthal, L. D., & Burchum, J. R. (2018). Lehne’s pharmacotherapeutics for nurse practitioners and physician assistants. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Sabatino, J. A., Pruchnicki, M. C., Sevin, A. M., Barker, E., Green, C. G., & Porter, K. (2017). Improving prescribing practices: A pharmacist‐led educational intervention for nurse practitioner students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(5), 248–254. doi:10.1002/2327- 6924.12446 Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay

Nurses have varying degrees of prescriptive authority over controlled substances, medications, medical services and medical devices. Ethical obligations also influence their prescriptions. Prescriptive regulations prevent medical errors which have become a major concern in the healthcare system. Approximately, over 250,000 deaths occurring in the United States annually are associated with medical errors. Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked medical errors as the third top causes of death in 2016 after heart diseases and cancer (Sabatino et al., 2017). In order to understand the ethical and legal issues associated with prescription, this paper examines a case of prescription of a nurse to their husband who is not her patient. Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay

Ethical and legal implications

The ethical and legal implications of this scenario include not documenting an evaluation of the patient as well as not reviewing their past medical history before prescribing. On the other hand, narcotics are controlled drugs whose prescriptions follow the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) procedure (DEA, n.d). As such, if the nurse is not authorized by DEA to prescribe controlled substances, she is definitely committing a legal crime. On the other hand, the nurse was not the patient’s nurse practitioner and did not consult before prescribing. Legally, prescribing should involve consultation and communication regarding the evaluation documentation and treatment and hence could cause medical errors Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay. Prescribing controlled drugs such as narcotics to family members or friends risk prosecution for diverting controlled drugs or, at minimum, inappropriate prescribing of controlled drug (Ladd & Hoyt, 2016). Consequently, if the nurse uses the wrong prescription form, they can be accused of fraudulent activities.

Strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure

Ethically, nurses are obligated to disclose information for informed decision-making of the patient. This supports the autonomy principle of ethics. Legally, the bill of rights advocates for full disclosure of medical errors (Ladd & Hoyt, 2016). In this case, the nurse should employ the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and autonomy to disclose the situation to other medical workers and the patient. The two strategies that I would employ in this case include autonomy. Here, I would call the patient and explain the legal and ethical procedure involved in my case and acknowledge that it I committed an error that could cause him harm. I would also engage his nurse practitioner to explain the right procedure I should have employed and as well point out the possible implications. Furthermore, I would offer an apology for the medical error and offer to cover for the financial resources associated with the error. Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay

Process of writing prescriptions

Following the process of writing prescriptions is important in eliminating medical errors. Prescriptions are written by qualified healthcare personnel. Notably, controlled substances are prescribed under specific conditions and by DEA certified nurses. The process of writing prescriptions involves filling and picking up prescriptive medications in a clear and legible manner. Prescriptions contain the name and address of the prescriber, the date of prescription, the name of the drug and its strength (Porter, 2017). A label of the administration instructions on the frequency and amount to be taken is also important.

In order to minimize medication errors, clear and complete information should be provided to the patients. The warnings, side effects and allergies should also be noted. The clarity of the prescription ensures that the pharmacist dispenses the correct drugs to patients. It is also essential for a prescriber of controlled drugs to be certified by DEA and follow the prescriptive guidelines provided to ensure safety and minimize the abuse of the drug. Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay

References

Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.-a). Code of federal regulations. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1300/1300_01.htm

Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (2017). List of errorprone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations. Retrieved from https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/errorprone-abbreviations-list

Ladd, E., & Hoyt, A. (2016). Shedding light on nurse practitioner prescribing. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12(3), 166–173. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2015.09.17

Sabatino, J. A., Pruchnicki, M. C., Sevin, A. M., Barker, E., Green, C. G., & Porter, K. (2017). Improving prescribing practices: A pharmacist‐led educational intervention for nurse practitioner students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(5), 248–254. doi:10.1002/2327- 6924.12446 Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs Essay