Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment
Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment
What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient? How might different state regulations affect the prescribing of this drug to this patient?
These are some of the questions you might consider when selecting a treatment plan for a patient.
As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held accountable for people’s lives every day. Patients and their families will often place trust in you because of your position. With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as an ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that you are aware of current professional, legal, and ethical standards for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the treatment plans and administration/prescribing of drugs is in accordance with the regulations of the state in which you practice. Understanding how these regulations may affect the prescribing of certain drugs in different states may have a significant impact on your patient’s treatment plan. In this Assignment, you explore ethical and legal implications of scenarios and consider how to appropriately respond.
To Prepare
· Review the Resources for this module and consider the legal and ethical implications of prescribing prescription drugs, disclosure, and nondisclosure.
· Review the scenario assigned by your Instructor for this Assignment.

Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs Assignment
· Search specific laws and standards for prescribing prescription drugs and for addressing medication errors for your state or region, and reflect on these as you review the scenario assigned by your Instructor.
· Consider the ethical and legal implications of the scenario for all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.
· Think about two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your ethically and legally responsible decision-making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose any medication errors.
Write a 3-page paper that addresses the following:
· Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.
· Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario you selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state.
· Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your decision making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose your error. Be sure to justify your explanation.
· Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize medication errors.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references.
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You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
When a patient enters the health center, medication is very likely to be administered. A health history and a patient’s medical evaluation are important things to examine when administering medication. A nurse or doctor should administer the care of the condition and be informed of the standard a condition should be offered depending on a background of health and physical inspection (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2020). In this discussion, the essay focuses on Scenario 2 to clarify the ethical and legal ramifications of patient family, prescriber, pharmacist and patient to all parties concerned. The discussion continues by explaining the methods I will use to drive decision-making for an experienced clinical nurse in the selected scenario.
Selected scenario
A colleague calls and demands for drugs to be taken for her. You are self-sufficient, but do not have the medical experience of your mate. Anyway, you write the drug. The ethical, as well as legal implications of the scenario on all stakeholders such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family, discuss as follow:
Nurse Practitioner: A nurse who uses medications without performing the requisite testing, evaluation and legal consequences such as absence, as needed by the medical code of ethics, such as the Colorado “Medical Practice Act,” breaches the code and is unprofessional (Sabatino & Pruchnicki, 2017). The NP who prescribes medication for a friend without a medical background fears jeopardizing his permit since adverse reactions can turn fatal. A nurse has the ethical obligation to prescribe the best medication, but only after a medical exam and evaluation.
Pharmacist: In mediation, a pharmacy dealer who carries out a prescription does not presume that the prescriber has made an examination, nor that the practitioner is ethically and legitimately liable for the background before the order is submitted. Thus, loading the Rx with the pharmacist’s chance of losing the license while knowing his clinical background.
Patient and family: Prescribing drugs to a patient is morally and technically permissible whether a patient may not have an awareness of his or her background, evaluation and allergies. Therefore the patient and the relatives will bring court charges against the nurse and pharmacy firm should any incident take place.
Strategies to Guide Decision making
The first strategy is to call the patient before prescribing medication and to make an appropriate date for a medical evaluation to reach the condition. Medical testing and an assessment may lead to the patient’s medical condition and, therefore, to the required medication (Musellim & Borekci, 2017). In medical and personal interactions, faulty and incorrect prescribe inaccurate medications, less frequent usage for preventive treatment, loss of medical satisfactions, and escalated aggressive incidents against healthcare providers, maybe the result of a patient’s evaluation over a short duration of time. The patient assessment period could have been influenced too gradually or too rapidly.
The second strategy is to do the clinical examination before administering medication to assess the condition of the patient. Clinical trials are study experiments in which patients actively undergo experimental therapeutic techniques, techniques or measures in order to avoid, diagnose, cure or control various conditions or diseases (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2020). Some studies consider how people react to a new procedure and what side effects may be created. The third method is to implement a prescriptive decision-making process by looking at the patient’s family members and their prior fitness. The prescriptive method of educated judgment aid approaches describes a variety of strategies to enable citizens to think differently about a decision.
Process of Writing Prescriptions
There are important things that physicians should consider before writing medications. Relevant elements must also be considered. Again, it is necessary to remember that there are norms in various countries. The criteria specify that the details on medications are provided. Both medications usually tend to use a vocabulary the consumer can understand such that they can learn quickly how to take medicine. Secondly, it is important to write clearly in writing while writing the medication (Solanki & Shah, 2015). Third, it is necessary to determine the duration of usage of the medication and the days the patient is supposed to take. Additional detail used is subject to local drug laws. With the exponential advancement of technology, electronic prescribing will continue to reduce the cost-effectiveness of drug mistakes. Electronic prescribing is an efficient means of eliminating medication errors. The continuous dependency on handwriting writing is one of the factors that have made medication mistakes inevitable (Nickless & Davies, 2016). Handwritten prescriptions might be negligible. Problems like this can be overcome by technology-based prescribing, as this will help to reduce drug mistakes.
References
Musellim, B., & Borekci, S. (2017). What should be the appropriate minimal duration for patient examination and evaluation in pulmonary outpatient clinics? Annals of Thoracic Medicine, 12(3), 177–182. doi:10.4103/atm.ATM_396_16
Nickless, G., & Davies, R. (2016). How to take an accurate and detailed medication history. The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Rosenthal, L., & Burchum, J. (2020). Lehne’s Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants. Elsevier – Health Sciences Division.
Sabatino, J. A., & Pruchnicki, M. C. (2017). Improving prescribing practices: A pharmacist-led educational intervention for nurse practitioner students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(5), 248-254. doi:10.1002/2327-6924.12446
Solanki, N. D., & Shah, C. (2015). Prescription audit in outpatient department of multispecialty hospital in western India: an observational study. International Journal of Clinical Trials, 14-19.
ANURS_6521_Week1_Assignment_Rubric
Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor | |
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Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. |
Points Range: 23 (23%) – 25 (25%)
The response accurately and thoroughly explains in detail the ethical and legal implications of the scenario selected on all stakeholders involved. The response includes accurate, clear, and detailed explanations as to how these implications affect the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. |
Points Range: 20 (20%) – 22 (22%)
The response explains the ethical and legal implications of the scenario selected on all stakeholders involved. The response includes accurate explanations as to how these implications affect the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. |
Points Range: 18 (18%) – 19 (19%)
The response inaccurately or vaguely explains the ethical and legal implications of the scenario selected for all stakeholders involved. The response includes vague explanations as to how these implications affect the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 17 (17%)
The response vaguely and inaccurately explains the ethical and legal implications of the scenario selected for all stakeholders involved, or the response is missing. The response vaguely and inaccurately explains how these implications affect the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family, or is missing. |
Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state. |
Points Range: 18 (18%) – 20 (20%)
An accurate, detailed, and clear description of strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected is provided. The response includes specific, detailed, and accurate reference to state laws related to the scenario. |
Points Range: 16 (16%) – 17 (17%)
An accurate description of strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected is provided. The response includes accurate reference to state laws related to the scenario. |
Points Range: 14 (14%) – 15 (15%)
A vague or inaccurate description of strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected is provided. The response includes inaccurate or vague reference to state laws related to the scenario. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 13 (13%)
A vague and inaccurate description of strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario selected is provided, or is missing. The response includes vague and inaccurate reference to state laws related to the scenario, or is missing. |
Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse would use to guide your decision making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose your error. Be sure to justify your explanation. |
Points Range: 18 (18%) – 20 (20%)
The response accurately and thoroughly explains in detail at least two strategies that an advanced practice nurse would use to guide decision making in the scenario. The response accurately and completely explains whether they would disclose the error, including an accurate, detailed, and clear justification for the explanation provided. |
Points Range: 16 (16%) – 17 (17%)
The response accurately explains at least two strategies that an advanced practice nurse would use to guide decision making in the scenario. The response accurately explains whether they would disclose the error, including an accurate justification for the explanation provided. |
Points Range: 14 (14%) – 15 (15%)
The response inaccurately or vaguely explains at least two strategies that an advanced practice nurse would use to guide decision making in the scenario, or only explains one strategy. The response inaccurately or vaguely explains whether they would disclose the error, including a justification that is vague, inaccurate, or misaligned to the explanation provided. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 13 (13%)
The response inaccurately and vaguely explains only one strategy that an advanced practice nurse would use to guide decision making in the scenario, or is missing. The response inaccurately and vaguely explains whether they would disclose the error, with no justification provided, or is missing. |
Explain the process of writing prescriptions including strategies to minimize medication errors. |
Points Range: 18 (18%) – 20 (20%)
The response provides an accurate, detailed, and thorough explanation of the process of writing prescriptions, including detailed strategies to minimize medication errors.
|
Points Range: 16 (16%) – 17 (17%)
The response provides an accurate explanation of the process of writing prescriptions, including some strategies to minimize medication errors.
|
Points Range: 14 (14%) – 15 (15%)
The response provides an inaccurate or vague explanation of the process of writing prescriptions, including inaccurate or vague strategies to minimize medication errors.
|
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 13 (13%)
The response provides an inaccurate and vague explanation of the process of writing prescriptions, including inaccurate and vague strategies to minimize medication errors, or is missing.
|
Written Expression and Formatting – Paragraph Development and Organization: Paragraphs make clear points that support well developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused–neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity.
|
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 80% of the time.
|
Points Range: 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 60%–79% of the time.
|
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity less than 60% of the time.
|
Written Expression and Formatting – English writing standards: Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors
|
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1–2) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors
|
Points Range: 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3–4) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors
|
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that interfere with the reader’s understanding
|
Written Expression and Formatting – The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, running head, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list. |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct APA format with no errors
|
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1–2) APA format errors
|
Points Range: 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3–4) APA format errors
|
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) APA format errors
|
Total Points: 100 |
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