Einstein International Journal Organization(EIJO)

Abstract

“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”   (Potter Stewart) Nursing is an integral part of the health care system and nurses direct their energies towards the prevention, promotion, maintenance and restoration of health. The role of nurses has expanded rapidly within the past two decades to include expertise specialization, autonomy and accountability. The patient is considered the consumer of nursing and health care. With the advent of the Consumer protection Act of 1986, which has been drastically widened by the amendment of 1993 all professionals. Nursing also being a profession has come under the Act. The Nurse must also be familiar with laws as: I) IPC sec 269- negligent Act likely to spread infectious disease dangerous to life. II) Sect 284- Negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance. It is stated that changes have occurred over the past decade in legal responsibilities of nurses. To avoid legal charges of negligence, nurses must keep abreast of the rapidly changing areas of instrument, documentation, and patient care. Health care errors are the 8^th leading cause of death in the world. About two-thirds of medical injuries occur in low and middle income countries like India. India is recording a whopping 5.2 million injuries each year due to medical errors and adverse events. Biggest sources are mishaps from medications, hospital acquired infections and blood clots that develops in legs from being immobilized in the hospital.

Nurses as partner of health care providers they may expect legal proceedings from the health care consumers. The curriculums of degree nursing programs have a chapter on legal concepts and its application on practice. Thus, the nurses in their learning and training period itself have reasonable and significant opportunity to learn about laws related to health care.

The statement of the present study is a study to assess the effectiveness of  information booklet in terms of knowledge regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing among B.Sc nursing 4^th year students in selected colleges of nursing, Bikaner with the objectives of

1. To assess knowledge regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing among B.Sc. nursing 4^th year students of selected nursing colleges, Bikaner before giving information booklet.
2. To develop an information booklet on legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing.
3. To assess knowledge regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing among B.Sc. nursing 4^th year students of selected nursing colleges, Bikaner after giving information booklet.

Material and Methods

The research was experimental study. Quasi experimental research design was adopted. Independent variable was information booklet on legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing and dependent variable was knowledge regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing. This study was conducted on 100 samples (50 in Experimental Group and 50 in Control group) selected from the Selected Colleges of Nursing Bikaner. Pilot study was conducted in 40 samples (20 in Experimental group and 20 in Control group) selected from the selected Colleges of Nursing, Jhunjhunu. Data collection was done through structured knowledge questionnaires which had 38 items. Reliability of the structured knowledge questionnaires was done by using KR20 Formula and it was found to be r = 0.8.

Results

The result showed that 50% of the samples had possessed good knowledge, 44% of the samples had possessed average knowledge, 6% of the samples had poor knowledge in experimental group. 2% of the samples had possessed good knowledge, 8% of the samples had possessed average knowledge, 90% of the sample had poor knowledge in control group.

The Mean post test knowledge score of experimental group was 28.4 which was significantly higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score (18.24). Paired t test value was computed to find out difference of mean, and it was found that the mean post knowledge was significantly higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score among experimental group at 0.05 level of significance. The calculated t value was 18.8371 which was higher than the table value at df (49).

The Mean post test knowledge score of control group was 17.44 which was not significantly higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score (16.52). Paired t test value was computed to find out difference of mean, and it was found that the mean post knowledge was not significantly higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score among control group at 0.05 level of significance. The calculated t value was 1.9180 which was lower than the table value at df (49).

Conclusion

The present study’s overall findings showed that students achieved good knowledge regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing after distribution of information booklet. Thus to conclude the investigator has achieved the objective for assessing the effectiveness of information booklet regarding legal and ethical responsibilities in the practice of nursing among B.sc Nursing 4^th Students in selected Colleges of Nursing, Bikaner.

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