Legal Responsibilities: The Nurse’s Role in Informed Consent

Subject: Nursing
Pages: 2
Words: 392
Reading time:
2 min
Study level: College

One of the principles of informed consent is the requirement to tell patients the absolute truth about their illnesses, as well. Moreover, the law requires that the patient should be provided with information about interventions and possible complications. The nurse’s role in this matter is hard to overestimate since they are required to respect the dignity of every patient. In addition, a medical worker must maintain the highest level of healthcare. In carrying out the professional duties, a nurse must maintain personal behavior that would create a comfortable environment for patients. Therefore, the right to informed consent should be provided regardless of nationality, race, faith, skin color, age, gender, political beliefs, social status.

Medical and Surgical Asepsis: Surgical Hand Hygiene

Maintaining hand hygiene is a mandatory procedure that should be performed before any interventions are performed on patients. The whole process consists of a number of steps, as well as several techniques and skills that allow doctors to reduce the risk of asepsis. For this reason, medical personnel must be provided with sufficient and effective products. Before conducting any surgery, at first, a doctor must remove watches, bracelets, and any other items from hands. After that, an antiseptic wash should be applied in order to destroy bacteria. Only sterile disposable towels must be used to dry the hands in order to avoid getting microorganisms from the cloth. When these steps are complete, the medical staff puts on sterile gloves, and only then can proceed with the surgery.

Safety: Steps of CPR

CPR is a set of steps that are aimed at restoring vital functions when a patient loses the ability to perform any respiratory activity. According to researchers, “cardiac arrest continues to represent a public health burden with most patients having dismal outcomes” (Nassar & Kerber, 2017, p. 1061). First of all, it is important to determine the signs of clinical death. If a patient is unconscious, is not breathing, and the pulse is absent, then it is time to perform CPR. A patient should be placed on a firm surface; after that, a doctor or a nurse must throw his or her head back. The next step is to conducting chest compressions, which must be strictly perpendicular to the sternum. The final step is to perform artificial respiration when a rescuer presses their mouth and blows air into a patient’s lungs.

Reference

Nassar, B. S., & Kerber, R. (2017). Improving CPR performance. Chest, 152(5), 1061-1069.