Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay

Scenario: During your lunch break at the hospital, you read a journal article on pharmacoeconomics. You think of a couple of patients who have recently mentioned their financial difficulties. You wonder if some of the expensive drugs you have prescribed are sufficiently managing the patients’ health conditions and improving their quality of life. 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. Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay. 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. 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. By Day 7 of Week 1 Write a 2- to 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.Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay.  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. The College of Nursing Writing Template with Instructions provided at the Walden Writing Center offers an example of those required elements (available at https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/ templates/general#s-lg-box-20293632). All papers submitted must use this formatting. Rubric 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.– Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the scenario 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 medical errors 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.– Written Expression and Formatting – English writing standards: Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation– 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.–

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Many patients visiting healthcare organizations for treatment face financial challenges. The financial challenges may hinder their ability to cater to the treatment, including the prescribed medications. Prescription of medication should take into account the economic status of a patient, health history, and physical assessment (Kivimäki et al., 2020). This discussion will focus on the legal and ethical aspects associated with the prescription of the drug. Specifically, the discussion will analyze the case study about the prescription of expensive drugs to patients. Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay.

Ethical and Legal Implications of the Scenario & Stakeholders

Ethical considerations during the prescription of medications should consider drug costs. Therefore, the nurse practitioner should focus on making cost-effective therapeutic decisions, including prescriptions to ensure that the patients are able to afford the medication (Kivimäki et al., 2020). The stakeholders involved include nurse practitioner, pharmacist, and the patient and the family. The nurse should ensure that the objective data and subjective data captures the financial ability of the patient. The medical practice Act requires comprehensive data collection prior to making any clinical decisions, including the prescription of drugs; violating the code may result in legal consequences. The pharmacist should also understand the financial constraints of the patient and provide the cheapest medication that can effectively treat the patient’s condition (Gronde et al., 2017). The patient and the family should be involved in the prescription process so that they provide the necessary information to facilitate a cost-effective prescription.

The Strategies to Guide Decision-Making

Nurses should understand various aspects of the patient before making any clinical decision, including prescribing the medication. A nurse practitioner needs to prescribe medications that are cheaper but at the same time, their therapeutic effect has been proven on the patient’s specific healthcare needs (Iuga & McGuire, 2015). In this case, the nurse should enquire whether the patient has a medical insurance cover. This is because medical cover improves the ability of the patient to afford better healthcare. Secondly, the nurse should also consider the available medications that have shown efficacy in treating health conditions the patient presents, and then prescribe the cheapest available treatment option.Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay.  The nurse should also conduct a comprehensive physical assessment and history taking in order to capture the psychosocial data of the patient (Daniel, 2016). The psychosocial data may inform the financial ability of the patient and guide the nurse in making the prescription decision.

Strategies to Address Disclosure and Nondisclosure

Regarding disclosure, the nurse should ensure that the patient and the family are informed about the specific available treatment options, including their costs. This will enable the patient and the family to make an informed decision, including selecting a medication they can afford (Iuga & McGuire, 2015). The nurse should also provide the patient data to the other members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure that they all make the treatment decisions, basing on the patient’s information, including the ability to afford the available treatment options. The nurse should utilize valid and reliable prescription guidelines to ensure the most appropriate prescriptive decision is made (Fowler & American Nurses Association, 2015).

The Process of Writing Prescriptions

Collecting comprehensive and accurate patient information is the first step towards informing the prescription decision. After collecting both subjective and objective patient data, the nurse should use patient-specific identifiers to ensure that the right patient is prescribed the correct medication. Any allergies and reactions towards the available treatment choices should be verified using the patient data. It is also important to highlight the patient’s critical health conditions and diagnoses as well. According to Daniel (2016), the nurse should utilize the latest and established prescription guidelines about the correct and appropriate prescribing. It is also important to identify the high-alert medications to facilitate proper monitoring of the patients being administered with high-alert drugs.  Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay.

Conclusion

Depending on the state, nurse practitioners normally have full or supervised prescription authority. This case study informs about the importance of considering the costs of medications and the financial ability of the patient when prescribing medications. The nurse should prescribe the most affordable medication to the patient, but ensure that the efficacy of the medication in treating the patient’s health condition is evidenced.

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References  

Daniel, H. (2016). Stemming the escalating cost of prescription drugs: a position paper of the American College of Physicians. Annals of internal medicine, 165(1), 50-52.

Fowler, M. D. M., & American Nurses Association. (2015). Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements: Development, Interpretation, and Application (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, Maryland: American Nurses Association.

Gronde, T. V. D., Uyl-de Groot, C. A., & Pieters, T. (2017). Addressing the challenge of high-priced prescription drugs in the era of precision medicine: A systematic review of drug life cycles, therapeutic drug markets, and regulatory frameworks. PLoS One, 12(8), e0182613.

Iuga, A. O., & McGuire, M. J. (2015). Adherence and health care costs. Risk management and healthcare policy, 7, 35–44. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S19801.

Kivimäki, M., Batty, G. D., Pentti, J., Shipley, M. J., Sipilä, P. N., Nyberg, S. T., … & Marmot, M. G. (2020). Association between socioeconomic status and the development of mental and physical health conditions in adulthood: a multi-cohort study. The Lancet Public Health, 5(3), e140-e149. Ethical and Legal implication of Prescription Drugs Essay.