Introduction
Teaching is an essential factor in nursing, thus training a nurse educator is a tremendous achievement for nurses. A nurse educator is a professional health caregiver who has a professional qualification and meets the nursing standards. The nurse educator skills are vital because the potential or lack of potential can influence the functioning and goals of the faculty and students. Regardless of the working context, be it practice context or in the learning institution, nurse educators train and mentor nurse practitioners and leaders in this field. Nurse educators act a major role in preparing the care providers, offering leadership required to advance evidence-based care (Luhanga, Koren, Yonge, & Myrick, 2014).
The role and competencies of nurse educators are guided by various assumptions based on the ethical and legal practice of the nursing practice. For instance, a nurse educator’s training should meet the requirements of the learning institution that employs him/her. The preparation for nurse educators should incorporate competence in medical practice at an advanced level (Maughan, 2010). The third assumption holds that preparation for nurse educators should happen at the graduate level.
However, dealing with students involves many legal and ethical issues that must be addressed carefully and comprehensively by nurse educators. In this light, this paper will offer an analysis of the legal and ethical responsibilities of the nurse educators who teach in the classroom or clinical settings. This paper will also examine the due process for students and new nurses concerning any practice deemed unsafe in the clinical setting. Lastly, this paper will offer potential guidelines for managing legal and ethical issues in the clinical field.
Roles and responsibilities of nurse educators
Nurse educators play the teacher role. Concerning the teacher role, nurse educators take control in designing curriculum, deciding instruction and techniques, and conducting student assessment. The teacher role entails leadership in various learning domains including clinical teaching and evaluation, seminar, classroom, and electronic teaching (Maughan, 2010). The skills attained via education and practice are utilized to commit students in learning and to widen their understanding of the legal and ethical framework in nursing practice as well as widen their knowledge of patients.
The basic idea of the teacher role is the capability to build exemplary behaviors of clinical practice. In a bid to achieve the standards of the regulatory and accrediting bodies, nurse educators should manifest the ability to use a wide range of instructional approaches. Nurse educators should also show the ability to integrate technology in teaching, understand cultural influences on health, and legal measures that control the nursing practice.
Nurse educators play a scholar role. Nurse educators are vested with the power to oversee the scholarship of teaching, exploration, application, and incorporation. The scholarship of teaching demands comprehension of the main idea and the capability to share that knowledge appropriately (McSherry, Pearce, Grimwood, & McSherry, 2012). To meet the standards of the regulatory board, the nurse educator must achieve precision, clarity, relevance, originality, and diversity.
These qualities are essential in spreading to others the appropriate practices in education, health care provision, and research. Nurse educators generate new information by carrying out an original study in nursing practice and education.
Moreover, nurse educators serve a collaborative role. Nurse educators are at the forefront of developing a partnership with developing health care systems, regulatory bodies, and communities. Cooperation with administrators and policymakers is important to ensure that training aligns with the practice expectations. The collaboration will help nurse educators to manifest professional and learning values in practice. These three main roles motivate nurse educators at all stages and in different contexts to build the desirable behaviors of competent nurses and ensure best practices in nursing practice.
Ethical implications
The National League for Nursing (NLN) members has emerged to address ethical issues experienced in nursing education. These concerns involve privacy, violence, and academic dishonesty. Ethical concerns can affect nurse students, faculty, or anyone involved in nursing education programs. The NLN ethical guidelines for nursing education offer a basis for best practices by all stakeholders of the nursing education fraternity.
Ethical practices are based on key values of diversity, integrity, caring, and excellence (McSherry et al., 2012). Pursuing diversity as an ethical value suggests that a nurse educator reckons the uniqueness of human beings and appreciate that uniqueness. In a learning context, nurse educators should employ different instruction approaches to fit different learners. Learning styles should factor in the influence of culture and encounters. Equal treatment of all stakeholders is emphasized by embracing racial, ethnic, gender, age, and religious equality among others. Nurse educators should emphasize the value and prominence of influences made by people of diverse origins and practices.
According to McSherry et al. (2012), integrity entails handling other people with dignity, respecting, and ensuring professional conduct in and out of the learning premises. Thus, nurse educators should learn to take responsibility for one’s deeds and spearheading for professional practices and beliefs. Nurse educators must learn to advance behaviors that manifest transparency, trust, and respect. Caring practices lead to desirable outcomes for nursing students and other members of the community. In a bid for students to develop caring actions, it is necessary for nurse educators to instill such vices to peers and students.
This modeling can be achieved by reckoning the essence of caring for oneself as a basis for creating concern for others and indulging in interpersonal relations. Excellence demands involvement in practices that facilitate professional development and prosperity. Nurse educators should ensure excellence by promoting a culture of research and innovation (Maughan, 2010). Besides, nurse educators should ensure flexibility by creating transformational learning.
Legal implications and the due process
Nurse educators may be held responsible for failing to offer adequate supervision of a student in the clinical setting. Nurse educators may also be held responsible if a student harms a patient and the injury is deemed predictable or if a student fails to meet standards of practice that other prudent students would meet in a similar situation. When such mistakes are filed in the lawsuit, nurse educators are charged under the civil law that manages misdemeanors committed by a person against another.
For instance, negligence is a widespread tort law action considered against nurse educators. Negligence is reported when a student nurse harms a patient due to failure to act in a manner that a prudent nurse would react in a similar circumstance (Luhanga et al., 2014).
However, the following three elements for legal action to take place should be observed. First, the abuse of the role by the accused student and evidence that a clinical nurse educator overlooks the measures other reasonable nurse educators would follow in a similar case. Second, if the nurse educator fails to offer adequate supervision leading to harm of a patient by a student. Third, if a patient suffers injury due to the nurse educator’s failure to provide precise training.
The nurse educator enjoys a constitutional right referred to as due process when an administrative process is filed against him/her regarding students or new nurses’ failure to meet practice standards. The due process provides the nurse educator or faculty with an opportunity to defend charges filed against them or their students. The due process provides the privilege to be informed of allegations, present facts, and the right to constitutional fairness in the administrative process.
Strategies for managing legal and ethical issues
To cushion against liability, the nurse educator should collaborate with the student to ensure the following. The nurse educator, as well as the student, should have a clear understanding of the Nurse Practice Act in line with the region of employment. This assertion holds because the nurse practice act may be tabled in a lawsuit as the standard of practice. Therefore, nurse educators must understand the scope of action, legal provisions, and the obligation of the nurse educator and nursing students. Nurse educators should be updated with the present standards of practice, particularly encompassing the specializing domains that require evidence-based procedures. Keen supervision and assessment for efficiency should be done before a student is assigned to handle a critical task (Luhanga et al., 2014).
In most states, the Nurse Practice Act refers to the student as an unlicensed provider with the ability to handle delegated tasks. Thus, nurse educators should ensure that the student is competent enough to perform the delegated duty. The nurse educator is also liable to any workplace injury either to self or to a colleague if a student was not adequately guided. Nurse educators should also develop proper interpersonal skills with fellow educators and students. Appropriate relations promote communication and collaboration hence eliminating any foreseeable injury in the clinical setting (Clark, 2009). An array of legal and ethical challenges persists for the nursing faculty, but adhering to state standards decreases the risks. Therefore, considering student and patient safety is essential to evade legal setbacks.
How faculty can promote professional behavior
Nursing faculty should plan for success at the onset of the academic program. According to Clark (2009), planning for a positive beginning assists alleviate possible challenges from happening later in the clinical setting. Proper communication helps create vital norms needed in nurturing a civil environment. This process propagates a feeling of responsibility, integrity, ownership, and devotion to practice standards.
The faculty should also promote open forums to disclose incivility and discuss how to ameliorate its adverse effects in nursing practice. According to Clark (2009), organizing open forums where every stakeholder is privileged to share ideas and grievances can assist nurture a professional and devoted community.
Managing dishonest students and new nurses
Student and new nurse’s dishonest practices is a huge problem for nursing faculty due to its possible influence on current and future clinical practices. Some of the strategies to ameliorate dishonest activities include modeling moral problem-solving skills, moral decision-making skills, designing, and implementing a reliable professional integrity policy (Clark, 2009). The faculty should have stringent rules defining what constitutes academic dishonesty and how to sanction such behavior. The lack of faculty agreement can lead to an environment that nurtures cheating hence causing honest students to retreat and become cheaters.
Conclusion
Legal and ethical factors in nursing education demand attention and commitment from all stakeholders of the nursing faculty. Faculty members are in a better position to ensure better practices and to ensure a culture of professionalism. This professionalism can be achieved by enhancing faculty-student relationships that promote adherence to practice standards. Therefore, faculty under the stewardship of nursing educators may promote these desirable behaviors via collaboration, professional role modeling, good planning, and conducting open discussions.
References
Clark, C. (2009). Faculty field guide for promoting student civility in the classroom. Nurse Educator, 34(5), 194-197.
Luhanga, F., Koren, I., Yonge, O., & Myrick, F. (2014). Strategies for managing unsafe precepted nursing students: A nursing faculty perspective. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 4(5), 116-123.
Maughan, E. (2010). Promoting school nursing: The role of school nurse educators. NASN School Nurse, 25(2), 59-60.
McSherry, R., Pearce, P., Grimwood, K., & McSherry, W. (2012). The pivotal role of nurse managers, leaders, and educators in enabling excellence in nursing care. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(1), 7-19.