Assignment of Contracts: Rights that Cannot Be Assigned
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Rights that Cannot Be Assigned
Assignment Of Contracts: Rights That Cannot Be Assigned
Nursing is a person-centered profession: in that it aims at providing quality care to individuals on personal levels and therefore requires a reliable and consistent leadership system. Being a unit essential in the health care fraternity, it has different assignments and contracts set in place for the departments’ effective running. Individual nurses, supervisors, and chief nurse executives have additional responsibilities contributing to their patient care work. These responsibilities in this type of setting are called an assignment. Assignment in nursing refers to routine care, activities, and medical procedures within the authorized and legal scope of practice of the Registered nurse (RN) or LPN.
A medically nursing assignment is defined as how patient care load is distributed among the available nursing personnel. A task can also be assigned under a contract form; it is termed as a contractual assignment. Like any other human being, nurses have different rights that govern both their individual lives and careers. According to (“Patient safety: Rights of registered nurses when considering a patient assignment,” n.d.), registered nurses have the right to accept, reject or object in writing form to any patient assignment that puts them to harm.
In the nursing fraternity, we have contract nurses; they are individuals whose contract can run for as long as 26 weeks to 1 month. Contract nurses are guaranteed to work in full-time hours by the health care facility. Contracting of employees is as familiar to nursing as it is to other jobs. Assignment contracting in nursing is essential as it helps nurses in knowing the terms and conditions of working, the number of hours they are supposed to work, and also defines the mode of payment. The other time is an assignment of the right agreement, which refers to a scenario in which one party known as the assignor shifts contract right to another party, also known as the assignee.
This topic was selected for clarity purposes on the issue of acceptance and rejection of nurses’ assignments. It also reflects and explains what rights of the work are nurses allowed to accept, delegate or not delegate. The paper continues to reflect on the legal matters in line with assignment acceptance within the nursing fraternity.
Article Review
I was very meticulous in choosing some of the articles to use in this paper and therefore utilized a variety of methodologies to research and identify relevant items that are in line with my choice of topic. To engage in an in-depth discussion that will enable me to study and analyze results undertaken concerning nurses accepting and rejecting assignment, I gathered literature from past and present years. To find both of my papers, I had to use Google scholar and focused on nurses’ legal issues and patient-nurse assignment.
My first article centers its discussion on the perception that nurses have towards patient assignments as well as the contracting process and agreement between the two parties. The report relates to my paper because it shows the underlying issues that occur during the assignment acceptance process. It also reflects on the topic of travel nurses and contract nurses. The article also gives a brief on some of the assignments that are considered safe and unsafe for nurses. It ends by stating what nurses should do when the work assigned to them is hazardous (Stephanie Allen, 2018).
The second article covers floating in nursing, which means nurses’ transfer or movement from one fraternity to the other. The article is founded on adequate staffing that has resulted in immense improvement in health care organizations. My paper relates to this article as it also touches on the necessity of observing nurses’ rights. The article highlights the dangers of floating nurses to unfamiliar specialty units. It states that this posse’s grave concern for both residential patients and the nurse professionals floated to those units (“Position statement on floating,” 2018).
Rights that Cannot Be Assigned
Laws and Regulation
According to (Massachusetts nurses association, 2020), there are specifics to nursing’s legal practice related to the regulations set out by the Board of Registration in Nursing (BORN). These regulations explain the law in clarity and set out the implementation in a way that nurses can understand. Nurses are mandated to be familiar and practice within all the regulations promulgated by the Board. One of the Boards fundamental principles is the delegation of nursing functions or assignments.
The Massachusetts Board of Nursing gives nurses authority under the Delegation of Functions’ law to delegate specific and not all assignments to unlicensed individuals. However, the specifics under this regulation state that the assignor is the nurse empowering this assignment as fully responsible for the nursing practice delegation. If the delegated task fails to meet the nursing competencies and standards of practice, the assignor will face disciplinary action from the Board (Massachusetts nurses association, 2020).
Behaviors and actions that could lead to a nurse facing disciplinary action from the Board include the following: Practicing beyond the NPA nursing scope, Abandoning or neglecting a patient, failing to oversee the delegated assignment to an assignee, and failing to complete a task. Additionally, nurses can also face disciplinary action from the Board if they undertake a task that they are fully competent in or do not meet the nursing standards required for that assignment.
The above regulation covers the factor of nursing assignment, which relates to my topic. It states that if a nurse delegates an assignment, they are fully responsible for the outcome. The disciplinary action, which may include a nurse’s license being revoked, also interferes with the nurse’s rights to practice and needs to be keenly analyzed and examined.
Cases
Nurses have the legal mandate to accept or reject an assignment legally. Most reported lawsuits are cases such as malpractice and negligence from either doctors or nurses. The following case review is on an incident involving nurse negligence and abuse. The resident family filed a suit against one of the nurses reported beating an older man. The lawsuit stated that the facility had failed to properly screen and monitor its staff before assigning them to the patient.
The assigned nurse, whose name is disclosed, stated that he was under immense pressure and that the job was too much for him. Part of his assignment included: giving medication to patients, wound dressing, delivering food trays, assisting patients in taking a bath, feeding patients, and delivering personalized patient care. The patient, a 72-year-old man, had undergone hip replacement surgery after allegedly being pushed by the nurse. The nurse was reported to be rude in several instances towards the patient in the home care facility.
The victim’s family hired a personal injury attorney to scrutinize the case. The nurse was found guilty after the attorney presented a video showing the nurse abusing the patient. The lawsuit finally ends with a settlement, and the nurse is charged. During the defense, the nurse argued that he had reported not being comfortable with the assignment he had been given. He says that he wrote this on several occasions but with no response from the administration.
His argument presents a case of a violation of his rights as he had tried to reject t the assignment. The patient needs scrutinization; the fault was not entirely on the assigned nurse but also on the assignor. His behavior resulted from the work he felt was strenuous (Charles R. Gueli, 2020).
Summary
From the above lawsuit, I have learned that nurses’ rights to accept or reject an assignment are fundamental. Nurses should also learn to scrutinize their assignment contracts before accepting an appointment and be free to communicate their opinion nurses’ issues to unfamiliar nursing specialty needs to be examined and given attention. To improve patient care, health organizations need to hire more competent nurses and train and educate the available ones. I have also learned that it is legal for nurses to reject and accept the assignment. I can apply the knowledge I have acquired from this research in my profession and study legal issues in the nursing fraternities.
References
Charles R. Gueli. (2020, November 3). Case study: Nursing home negligence and abuse. Injury Claim Coach. https://www.injuryclaimcoach.com/nurse-negligence.html
Massachusetts nurses association. (2020). Legal considerations – Accept or reject an assignment – Nursing practice – Nursing resources – Massachusetts nurses association. Massachusetts Nurses Association. https://www.massnurses.org/nursing-resources/nursing-practice/accept-reject/legal
Patient safety: Rights of registered nurses when considering a patient assignment. (n.d.). ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/official-position-statements/id/patient-safety-rights-of-registered-nurses-when-considering-a-patient-assignment/
Position statement on floating. (2018, March 8). New York State Nurses Association. https://www.nysna.org/position-statement-floating#.YBkEzKQzZ6o
Stephanie Allen. (2018). The Nurse-Patient Assignment Process: What Clinical Nurses and Patients Think. ResearchGate | Find and share research. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephanie_Allen21/publication/327704367_The_nurse-patient_assignment_process_What_clinical_nurses_and_patients_think/links/5d01593492851c874c6234d2/The-nurse-patient-assignment-process-What-clinical-nurses-and-patients-think.pd
Rights that Cannot Be Assigned
Question
BUS3055 Individual Project Instructions
To make the course engaging for each student, you will select a legal topic to research in Week 3. A list of potential topics is linked to this assignment. Although you are not required to select the exact topics listed, you should select something closely related. Try to select a topic that reflects an issue that is related to a concern you have in your professional life. If your topic is not on the list, contact your instructor for approval.
With the exception of the introduction, you must use the headings that are explained below and the information must be presented in that same order.
Introduction
Provide a short introduction to the topic. Provide some background about the topic selected and why it was selected. Include definitions as necessary. Use more than one paragraph, if needed.
Note: Do not use the term Introduction for the heading, as APA does not use that term. See APA materials in the Library Research Guide.
Article Review
Locate two scholarly articles related to your topic. Summarize the articles in your own words and explain how each is related to your topic. Do not use court cases in this section. You must use scholarly articles from the South University Online Library. Legal journals may provide some of the best sources of information.
Laws and Regulations
Research and analyze one law or regulation related to the topic you selected. The information may require research of federal and/or state laws, as well as administrative agency laws. Summarize the information about the law or regulation you found and explain how it applies to your topic.
Cases
Locate one published case (lawsuit) that is related to the topic you selected. Summarize the case in your own words and explain how it is related to your topic. Provide a summary that includes the name of the case, state or federal court, issue, summary of events and ruling. Explain whether you agree or disagree with the court’s decision. The following sources may also be helpful. You must read the case and not a summary of the case from a blog or other article.
FindLaw – Caselaw.findlaw.com
Justia
Public Library of Law
Leagle
Open Jurist
Google Scholar Video for Finding Cases
Summary
Summarize what you have learned. Assess and communicate what you believe the future holds as it relates to your topic.
If applicable, discuss how you might apply what your learned to your personal or professional life.
Submission Details:
Write a 5 to 7 page paper about the topic using the guidelines provided. The cover page and reference page do not count as pages.
Use APA format for the paper. Review the APA materials located in the Library Research Guide.
Name your document SU_BUS3055_W3_LastName_FirstInitial.doc
Submit your document to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.
Rights that Cannot Be Assigned