Ethical And Legal Implications Of Prescribing Drugs

To Prepare

• Review the Resources for this module and search specific laws and standards for prescribing prescription drugs and for addressing medication errors in your state. Reflect on these as you review the scenario assigned by your Instructor.

By Day 7 of Week 1

Write a 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario on all stakeholders involved, including the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.
• Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure. 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. Be sure to justify your explanation.
• Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize medication errors.

Assigned scenario

You see another nurse practitioner writing a prescription for her husband, who is not a patient of the nurse practitioner. The prescription is for a narcotic. You can’t decide whether or not to report the incident.