From the case study, it is evident that Linda is experiencing legal, ethical and professional difficulties due to the issue of nursing shortage. Indeed, the unavailability of nurses and assistants is the root cause of Linda’s inability to provide the best patient care. The principles of beneficence (bringing about good for the patient) and nonmaleficence (not harming another) are involved in this case as Linda is unable to provide the best patient care due to the acute shortage of nursing professionals (Wheeler, 2012). The ethical dilemma that can be identified from the case is Linda’s attempt to balance the issues of not abandoning her patients with her concern about not providing quality care to her patients due to the shortage of nurses.
The professional responsibility and accountability legal standard is in danger of being violated based on the fact that Linda is unable to not only take action to promote the provision of safe and appropriate care to her patients due to the issue of nursing shortage, but also to take responsibility for her own nursing decisions and professional conduct. Additionally, the standard of client-focused provision of service is in danger of being violated as Linda is unable to not only coordinate or organize patient care in a manner that facilitates continuity for the patients, but also to delegate duties to other members of the health care team (Wheeler, 2012).
Lastly, it is clear that Linda could be accused of engaging in professional negligence or malpractice since her failure to continuously monitor suicidal patients leads to the injury or harm of one of the patients. Drawing from these elucidations, it is possible for Linda to lose her license due to failure to follow the established legal standards and the aspect of professional negligence that leads to the actual injury of one of the suicidal patients. However, she could avoid losing her license by using the issue of nursing shortage to explain the circumstances that led to the perceived professional negligence.
References
Wheeler, H. (2012). Law, ethics and professional issues for nursing: A reflective and portfolio-building approach. New York, NY: Routledge.
Yonah, G., Fredrick, F., & Leyna, G. (2014). HIV serostatus disclosure among people living with HIV/AIDS in Mwanza, Tanzania. AIDS Research and Therapy, 11(5), 276-287. doi: 10.1186/1742-6405-11-5.