LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF PMHNP CARE

Advanced practice nursing in all specialties is guided by codes of ethics that put the care, rights, duty, health, and safety of the patient first and foremost(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan). PMHNP practice is also guided by ethical codes specifically for psychiatry. These ethical codes are frameworks to guide clinical decision making; they are generally not prescriptive. They also represent the aspirational ideals for the profession. Laws, on the other hand, dictate the requirements that must be followed. In this way, legal codes may be thought to represent the minimum standards of care, and ethics represent the highest goals for care.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

For this Discussion, you select a topic that has both legal and ethical implications for PMHNP practice and then perform a literature review on the topic. Your goal will be to identify the most salient legal and ethical facets of the issue for PMHNP practice, and also how these facets differ in the care of adult patients versus children. Keep in mind as you research your issue, that laws differ by state and your clinical practice will be dictated by the laws that govern your state.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources. 

WEEKLY RESOURCES

TO PREPARE

• Select one of the following ethical/legal topics:
  • Autonomy
  • Beneficence
  • Justice
  • Fidelity
  • Veracity
  • Involuntary hospitalization and due process of civil commitment
  • Informed assent/consent and capacity
  • Duty to warn
  • Restraints
  • HIPPA
  • Child and elder abuse reporting
  • Tort law
  • Negligence/malpractice
• In the Walden library, locate a total of four scholarly, professional, or legal resources related to this topic. One should address ethical considerations related to this topic for adults, one should be on ethical considerations related to this topic for children/adolescents, one should be on legal considerations related to this topic for adults, and one should be on legal considerations related to this topic for children/adolescents.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 2

Briefly identify the topic you selected. Then, summarize the articles you selected, explaining the most salient ethical and legal issues related to the topic as they concern psychiatric-mental health practice for children/adolescents and for adults. Explain how this information could apply to your clinical practice, including specific implications for practice within your state. Attach the PDFs of your articles. Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 2

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on 2 different days by sharing cultural considerations that may impact the legal or ethical issues present in their articles.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

Note: For this Discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by clicking on the Reply button to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click on Post Reply, you cannot delete or edit your own posts and you cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clicking on Post Reply! 

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Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan

PMHNPs encounter various situations in practice that require some form of decision-making that contradicts the existing legal or ethical viewpoints. In one way or the other, clinical decisions must be made to protect clients and promote positive health outcomes. For this discussion, I evaluate veracity’s legal and ethical facets in mental healthcare. I also discuss the differences in the legal and ethical facets of how veracity varies between mental healthcare between children and adults.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

Veracity refers to providing accurate, comprehensive, and objective information to the client. Veracity is crucial in fostering the relationship between a client and healthcare personnel as trust is cultured (Amer, 2019). Veracity involves being willing to provide clients with accurate information rather than offering false reassurances, which can lead to misplaced trust or a perceived lack of honesty. In some cases, however, the need to uphold veracity is determined by the client’s clinical status and age, leading to ethical and legal concerns.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

Typically, veracity establishes an interplay between nonmaleficence and autonomy, which some patient conditions and cultures affect. For instance, some cultures associate mental health issues with taboos, and some patients and their families cannot accept such diagnoses (Gopalkrishnan, 2018). In such cases, a client may reject diagnosis and interventions, which could lead to poor health outcomes. Besides, there is a need for informed consent when dealing with older patients and the same from parents or individuals with legal authority when dealing with pediatric clients (Amer, 2019). Therefore, PMHNPs should provide a significant way of upholding veracity and preventing adverse health outcomes.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

Furthermore, the legal consideration in veracity is the patient’s right to be informed about their health. Patients have the legal right to be given accurate and understandable information to promote informed decisions across their lifespans (American Nurses Association, 2015; Olejarczyk & Young, 2019). In this regard, PMHNPs should find moral ways of giving patients information and assist them in evaluating the risks and benefits of the available interventions.(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

References

Amer, A. B. (2019). The ethics of veracity is important in medical ethics. Open Journal of Nursing, 9(2), 194-198. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2019.92019

American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Available at: https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/ (Accessed 13 September 2022)(Comprehensive Essay on Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan)

Gopalkrishnan, N. (2018). Cultural diversity and mental health: Considerations for policy and practice. Frontiers in Public Health, 6, 179. https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpubh.2018.00179

Olejarczyk, J. P., & Young, M. (2019). Patient Rights and Ethics. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538279/ (Accessed 12 December 2022)