Introduction
Nursing is one of the essential parts of cancer patients’ treatment. However, providing care might “raise moral and ethical issues regarding respect for patient integrity and autonomy” (Park, 2009, p. 68). Moreover, the specifics of oncology treatment can pose additional legal challenges for nursing staff. The paper aims at identifying primary areas for legal and ethical issues faced by oncology nurses and discuss strategies that could help in working with the challenges.
Legal and Ethical Issues Faced by Oncology Nurses
The reviewed article focuses on analyzing existing scholarship on ethical issues in nursing practice in general. However, the author mentions another paper that is concentrated on the peculiar challenges that might arise for oncology nurses in the following areas: advance directives, do-not-resuscitate orders, documentation and patient privacy, informed consent, medication errors, and pain management (as cited in Park, 2009). The presented legal and ethical dilemmas could be a severe challenge to nurses and even serve as a legal reason for litigation if not appropriately addressed.
Strategies to Address the Issues
The issues connected to cancer patients’ treatment, mentioned above, require their full acknowledgment and understanding of their potential impact. Therefore, it is essential to provide nurses with opportunities to expand their knowledge on the ethics and legal side of nursing practice and oncology treatment in particular. First, it seems vital to pay special attention to these issues in nursing training programs by adding them to the curriculum. This will help to avoid the situation when “nurses deal with ethical issues on the basis of their own values” (Park, 2009, p. 76). Moreover, the same and even more rigorous approach should be applied when addressing the legal issues. It is important to provide initial and continuing education opportunities for oncology nurses to remain current and knowledgeable about laws and regulations. Finally, another useful strategy would be to establish better communications between nursing staff and ethical and legal committees at the hospital.
Conclusion
Oncology nurses face ethical and legal issues connected to the specifics of cancer patients’ treatment. Among them are challenges associated with end-of-life procedures, consent and patient privacy, medical errors, pain management, and medication distribution. Addressing these issues requires effective strategies that involve education and providing sufficient support by hospital committees that would allow the nursing staff to solve the possible problems and make knowledgeable decisions.
Reference
Park, M. (2009). Ethical issues in nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Law, 13(3), 68-77. Web.