Nurses that administer medication are accountable for recognizing the medications prescribed, the patients need for the medication and their therapeutic and non-therapeutic effects (Crisp and Taylor, 2013). The purpose of this essay is to examine the importance of understanding the registered nurse’s role and responsibilities when administering medication. Equally, it will cover all the key concepts of legal and ethical issues relevant to medication administration. The legal and ethical issues are discussed in relation to the documents NZ Nurses Organisation Guidelines for Nurses on the Administration of Medicines (2014), Nursing Council of NZ Competencies for Registered Nurses (2016), Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, Local
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The scope of practice sets out the area of practice nurses work in, and their competencies, responsibilities, and qualifications”. RNs must remain within their scope of practice at all time whether off or on duty as they are accountable for their nursing advice. If a RN is recommending or administering Over the Counter (OTC) medicines they must have the necessary knowledge of the medicine in order to continue. Liz administered Nurofen to Mr. A which is an over the counter medicine. Nurofen is an analgesia and used for pain relief, its active drug is ibuprofen (Benckiser, 2015). According to Medsafe, when administering ibuprofen nurses should be considerate that elderly patients are more prone to adverse effects and should be cautious with patients that have renal impairment or impaired liver function. Ibuprofen should not be given to patients who take aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication to stimulate signs of asthma, rhinitis or urticaria. Some adverse effects include nausea, heartburn, constipation and many more (medsafe, …show more content…
Health professionals want to maintain a perfect image, therefore, admitting to an error be challenging. Nurses need to maintain a high standard of behavior on and off duty and take full responsibility for their action and claim accountability of any mistake made. Documentation is a vital part of nursing as it contains all the information of the patient which then can be accessed by the government organizations during an audit. In RN Liz’s instance, she breached the code of rights, domains of the competence and standards of the principle in the code of conduct. She did not show professionalism and did not take proper responsibility while administering medication to Mr. A. she also failed to document the incident and to speak to or take advice from her co-workers or seniors RN’s in response to her situation of feeling
The scope of practice sets out the area of practice nurses work in, and their competencies, responsibilities, and qualifications”. RNs must remain within their scope of practice at all time whether off or on duty as they are accountable for their nursing advice. If a RN is recommending or administering Over the Counter (OTC) medicines they must have the necessary knowledge of the medicine in order to continue. Liz administered Nurofen to Mr. A which is an over the counter medicine. Nurofen is an analgesia and used for pain relief, its active drug is ibuprofen (Benckiser, 2015). According to Medsafe, when administering ibuprofen nurses should be considerate that elderly patients are more prone to adverse effects and should be cautious with patients that have renal impairment or impaired liver function. Ibuprofen should not be given to patients who take aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication to stimulate signs of asthma, rhinitis or urticaria. Some adverse effects include nausea, heartburn, constipation and many more (medsafe, …show more content…
Health professionals want to maintain a perfect image, therefore, admitting to an error be challenging. Nurses need to maintain a high standard of behavior on and off duty and take full responsibility for their action and claim accountability of any mistake made. Documentation is a vital part of nursing as it contains all the information of the patient which then can be accessed by the government organizations during an audit. In RN Liz’s instance, she breached the code of rights, domains of the competence and standards of the principle in the code of conduct. She did not show professionalism and did not take proper responsibility while administering medication to Mr. A. she also failed to document the incident and to speak to or take advice from her co-workers or seniors RN’s in response to her situation of feeling