Assessment Purpose:

The student will be able to: Discuss the importance of understanding the NZ Registered Nurse’s role and responsibilities in administering medication

Assessment key words and concepts: Legal issues Ethical issues Medication administration Registered nurse role and responsibilities Rubric: Use the rubric to guide your essay structure. Follow the order as set out in the rubric

Assessment Task/Activities: Discuss and analyse the legal and ethical issues in relation to medication administration in the following scenario: Registered Nurse (RN) AJ is on the morning shift and is doing the medication round with Bill, a Student Nurse. They are caring for Mr P., an 88-year-old resident of the aged care facility. He has several co-morbidities and is quite frail, but cognitively alert and able.

He is prescribed six regular medications. Mr P shows the nurses a rash he has all over his lower legs and forearms. RN AJ takes a tube of ointment from her pocket and tells him to apply it all over the rash. She also gives him an antihistamine tablet from the stock on the medication trolley. Mr P refuses the tablet, and says he doesn’t think it will work. When they leave the room, RN AJ states to Bill that she thinks Mr P. should have the antihistamine and precedes to crush the tablet, mixing it with some of his yoghurt. She states that, “we often have to do this with residents.

This way, Mr P. won’t know that he is getting it”. RN AJ asks Bill to go and give Mr P. the yoghurt and his regular medications while she moves on to the next resident, as she is running late. Bill has some doubts, but follows the RN’s instructions. Later, on the evening shift, Mr P. complains of dizziness and is assessed as being rather confused. His pulse rate is increased and a little irregular.

In the morning Lina, the Nurse Manager, does an investigation. When asked, Bill mentions that he gave Mr P. a crushed antihistamine tablet in yoghurt at the request of RN AJ. After further investigation, Lina finds that Mr P. has no prescriptions for the antihistamine or the ointment on his medication chart. The administration of, or reason for, these medications has not been documented anywhere in his notes. When questioned, RN AJ tells Lina that she “just wanted to help Mr P.” and had been under time pressure during the medication rounds. She felt that there was no issue with crushing and hiding the medication in the yoghurt, as this seems common practice in this setting. RN AJ also stated that she assumed Bill was able to correctly administer the medication to Mr P. Use relevant and current evidence to support your discussion of the legal and ethical issues in the scenario.

Analyse the legal issues in the scenario in relation to the following documents: Guidelines for Nurses on the Administration of Medicines (NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO), 2019) Competencies for Registered Nurses and Scope of Practice (Nursing Council of NZ (NCNZ), 2022) Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 Medicines Care Guides for Residential Aged Care (Ministry of Health, 2011). (55 marks) Analyse the ethical issues in the scenario in relation to the: Code of Conduct (NCNZ, 2012) Code of Ethics (NZNO, 2019) Fact Sheet:

Duty of Care (NZNO, 2016) (25 marks) Use of GenAI: The use of GenAI in this assessment is not permitted. Any suspected use of these tools may result in investigation for Academic Misconduct in accordance with the MIT Ākonga Policy. The use of Grammarly is permitted for checking grammatical errors only. Your kaiako (lecturer) has the right to ask you questions about your work or to explain it to check your understanding. Your kaiako has the right to ask you to recreate any part of the work in front of them. Receiving full marks for any questions may be subject to a full and clear explanation from the ākonga (student).

Assessments are to be submitted through Turnitin which checks for plagiarism or use of AI generated work. Ākonga are recommended to review their similarity score prior to final submission AND to check their submission against this AI detector tool, prior to final submission: https://gptzero.meLinks to an external site. Citations and Referencing: Other references may be used to support your discussion. Please use your Clinical Key accounts to ensure you are using evidenced-based and peer-reviewed texts for your assignment and referencing instead of Wikipedia / google / blogs / nurse labs and other such less academic / authoritative sources APA 7th referencing and citing style as per MIT Library Guide.

Structure: Introduction: DO NOT include the whole scenario. Summarise/introduce it and the seven documents. Outline what will be covered in the essay. Use the rubric to guide the content of the essay. Write it in the order as outlined in the rubric. Note the marks given to each section and allocate number of words accordingly.

Conclusion: Summarise main points with no new material included Reference List in APA 7th format