NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
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.
- 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. NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
- 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 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. 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 School of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The School 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.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
- Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK1Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
- Click the Week 1 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
- Click the Week 1 Assignment You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
- Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer Find the document you saved as “WK1Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
- If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
- Click on the Submitbutton to complete your submission. NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
NURS_6521_Week1_Assignment_Rubric
| Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor | ||
| 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. |
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| 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. NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs |
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 |
NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
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 |
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| Total Points: 100 | |||||
NURS 6521 week 1 Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs