PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY & ACCOUNTABILITY

INTRODUCTION
While each country, state or health care facility a nurse practitioner in may have different
laws or policies governing what professional duties a nurse may perform, professional
responsibility in nursing is universal & refers more to a code of conduct or standard of
practice. Thus, a strong sense of responsibility will serve the nurse well regardless of where
he or she works.
DEFINITION
Profession
Group requiring special education & intellectual knowledge vs occupation.
NURSING AS A PROFESSION
Body of knowledge
cope of practice
!esearch base
"ode of ethics
RESPONSIBILITY
#rofessional responsibility in nursing is a set of standards developed for the profession.
These standards are an oath or pledge for the nursing profession that has been developed by
nursing schools & professional nursing associations.
RESPONSIBILITY OF NURSE
$. !esponsibility of appointing & assigning
%ursing administrators are e&pected to be aware of legal restrictions affecting
personnel appointment & assignment.
'f she or he appoints an employee, without appropriate screening & that employee
later in(ures a patient
The nurse administrators has responsibility for staffing & supervising nursing units to
ensure safe effective patient care.
). !esponsibility in quality control
The nurse should have to ensure quality nurse care
*sually the head nurse or nurse incharge is the responsible for quality patient care
+. !esponsibility for equipment
To protect patients & employees from in(ury, a nurse manager must ensure all patient
care , equipments are fully functional that defective equipment is promptly repaired
& replaced.
-. !esponsibility for observation & reporting
%ursing professional have a legal duty to observe patients frequently & report
findings that have diagnostic or treatment value for the patient physician.
'nfants, children, aged, disoriented, psychiatric & critically ill patients require more
observations more than other patients
.. !esponsibility to protect public
The nurse has a legal duty to protect the public from in(ury by dangerous patients
The nurse must ensure that nursing personal follow the procedures to alert community
members to the presence of potentially dangerous patients in their midst
/. !esponsibility for record keeping & reporting
%urses have legal responsibility for accurately reporting & recording patient
condition, treatment & responses to care
#atients medical record is essential to proper care or it is the property of the health
care agency.
0ailure to record significant patient information in the medical record make a nurse to
guilty of negligence when the patient is in(ured because of physicians ignorance of
significant information almost medical history, signs & symptoms.
1. !esponsibility for death & dying
2eath occurs when there is an absence of brain function, despite function of other
body organs.