For this Discussion, you select a topic that has both legal and ethical implications for PMHNP practice and then perform a literature review on the topic. Your goal will be to identify the most salient legal and ethical facets of the issue for PMHNP practice and also how these facets differ in the care of adult patients versus children

Ethical and Legal Foundations of PMHNP Care- Informed Consent

Informed consent is an ethical and legal matter for the patients (adults, adolescents, or children) who are being managed for a mental health illness by the PMHNSs (Psychiatric mental health nurses). Issues about informed consent in psychiatric care nursing are addressed in this issue. Conducting psychiatric therapy for PMHNP throughout their clinical practice requires ethical and legal informed consent. Informed consent gave the adult patients knowledge about their psychological health and a care plan (Bipeta, 2019). Informed consent increases patients’ autonomy, allowing them to refuse the prescribed psychiatric therapy. Parents or guardians of teenagers and children, on the other hand, have the legislative ability to consent to the proposed psychotherapeutic treatment.

Summary of Articles

Ethical And Legal Issues Related To Informed Consent

Evidence-based information provides reasons and arguments for selecting informed consent before every medical operation. The study studies examine the constraints of legal and ethical concerns linked to informed consent utilization in psychotherapy contexts. The four publications chosen for this essay provide sufficient information on applying ethical and legal informed consent norms in psychiatry mental health treatments. Some of the most pressing ethical and legal concerns affecting adults, adolescents, and children are discussed.

Ethical Considerations Of Informed Consent

In the context of adult patients, the PMHNP encounters ethical and legal issues in situations where he or she believes the treatment plan is the best option for the patient. However, the patient’s impaired decision-making impairment makes it difficult to carry out the care plan (Blease et al., 2020). If the therapist does not provide complete information regarding the mental treatment, this approach violates the ethical principle of informed consent.

For children and teenagers, parents decide based on their perspectives. This scenario presents ethical challenges for the PMHNP to ensure informed consent and moral implications (Shafizadeh, 2020). According to codes of ethics, making an ignorant decision regarding therapeutic approaches in forms of psychotherapy for children and teenagers is unethical.

Legal Considerations Of Informed Consent

Deciding on an adult patient’s therapy with a severe disease for a PMHNP, dealing with mental illness is a difficult circumstance. The caregivers or patients themselves may be harmed due to the patient’s reaction to the recommended treatment plan (Darby et al., 2018). This is the legal consideration’s constraint, as it may obstruct the treatment’s usual delivery in such circumstances.

In psychotherapy, children and teenagers are frequently regarded as inept decision-makers. Adolescent clients’ legal rights enable them to make informed decisions and consent to psychotherapy. When a teenager denies psychotherapy or requests a treatment change on the informed consent letter, it is illegal for the practitioner to persist with the treatment, regardless of how beneficial the therapy is (Bipeta, 2019). As a result, the practitioner cannot pursue the planned psychotherapy due to legal principles of informed consent, which allow patients to accept or reject the treatment.

Application To My Clinical Practice

My clinical experience is in a mental health facility in the state of  Ohio. In my professional position as a mental health nurse professional, I may apply the legal and ethical issues of informed consent to therapeutic interventions for children and teenagers. Similarly, by reading these papers, I will be better equipped to deal with ethical difficulties in my medical practice. Mental health nurse professionals in my state acquire the necessary informed consent from people with mental health conditions. Children and teenagers’ interventions necessitate the client’s full participation in therapy.  The children/teenager client’s permission is critical ethically and legally in achieving successful psychiatric care effects.

References

Bipeta, R. (2019). Legal and ethical aspects of mental health care. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 41(2), 108-112. https://doi.org/10.4103%2FIJPSYM.IJPSYM_59_19