Legal and ethical issues in relation to this scenario Essay

Legal and ethical issues in relation to this scenario - Essay Example to disclose to their superiors Martina’s inability to do her job; and whether or not Martina violated ethical or legal standards in nursing practice for almost committing a medical error and for working in a distracted state. . Beneficence: The patients in Martina’s care have the right to be administered with the correct and competent care from Martina (Masters, 2009). Beneficence implies that actions which seek to benefit the patient must be the ones which should be administered to the patient. Since, the patient has the right to receive appropriate, timely, and effective care, such care must be administered at all times by the nursing and other health care professionals (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). Failure to deliver such beneficial care violates ethical principles of beneficence. Nonmaleficence: First, do no harm. This is the very basis of nonmaleficence (Masters, 2009). Under this ethical provision, all actions of the nurses and other health professionals must not cause the patients any harm. Martina’s lack of focus almost caused the patient harm. Her continued lack of focus has placed her patients at a continuous risk for various medical errors including medication errors and neglect (Butts, 2012). Omar’s concealment of Martina’s lack of focus is also another act which causes the patient harm. The concealment can potentially be dangerous for patients because repeated errors may occur unless actions by the superiors are carried out (Butts, 2012). Martina has issues she has to deal with on her own and she has to be relieved from her work, given time off, or given a vacation until she can be fit to work efficiently again as a nurse. Legal issues: In the case of Omar and Martina, there is a need to establish whether Omar’s actions in failing to reveal his observations on Martina’s actions constitute negligence and merit legal action. Various principles constitute negligent action according to Staunton and Chiarella (2008). First