NURS FPX 6103 Assessment 5 Teaching About Legal and Ethical Issues
NURS FPX 6103 Assessment 5 Teaching About Legal and Ethical Issues Name Capella university NURS-FPX 6103 The Nurse Educator Role Prof. Name Date Teaching about Legal and Ethical Issues Hello, everyone. My name is ABC, and I am an assistant professor at one of the nursing universities. This paper will discuss the importance of catering to legal and ethical nursing education and aspects of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) violations. We must understand that decision-making has regulatory and moral implications for practice in schools and clinical areas. Challenging the violations of ethical standards is crucial to the growth of nursing practice. This presentation will discuss how to deal with FERPA violations ethically while improving the quality of nursing education. Legal and Ethical Issue: Violation of FERPA I want to start this presentation with cases that show that nurse educators break the FERPA rules, for example, when sharing information about a nursing student’s success and achievements with the staff without the student’s permission. For example, I will discuss a personal experience of a clinical manager at the facility where I work part-time who one day came to me seeking an assessment of the clinical skills of a former student, Erick, who had applied for a nursing position at the facility. I told him I could not disclose information about his academic progress or success because it violated FERPA policy. As a nursing educator, I was perfectly in awe of the legal repercussions of such violations. When the hiring manager asked FERPA to prohibit sharing information on student success, the latter was shocked and stated that other clinical instructors did not mind the practice. This situation highlighted the issue of changing faculty and nursing students’ perceptions of confidentiality and FERPA regulation compliance. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) The FERPA is a U.S. federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Schools must obtain written consent before disclosing personal or academic information, except under specific authorized circumstances. FERPA ensures confidentiality and grants students the right to access, review, and request amendments to their records (Cino & Vandini, 2020). Breaching Implications Violating FERPA regulations carries significant consequences, including potential legal action against individuals and institutions for unauthorized disclosure of student information. In severe cases, such breaches can result in temporary suspension of access to student records or even the revocation of professional licenses and job termination. Noncompliance also threatens the financial stability of educational institutions, as it may lead to the loss of government funding. These risks highlight the critical need for organizations and stakeholders, particularly nurse educators, to adhere to FERPA guidelines. Unfortunately, many educators remain unaware of the implications of these violations, underscoring the importance of providing training and education to improve understanding of FERPA requirements (Vance & Waughn, 2020). Fostering clear and effective communication within institutions can help prevent breaches and ensure compliance. Necessary Changes and Change Management Strategy FERPA breaches are a significant legal and ethical issue to nursing education as they complicate the learning process, threaten the institution’s reputation, and compromise the code of ethics. To that effect, the following are the challenges that need to be addressed through proactive strategies. Assistant professors or nurse educators play an important role in ensuring that students are well-equipped to practice safe nursing with high ethical and legal compliance standards. Supporting ethical awareness, educators should explain the consequences of FERPA violations to nursing students and accentuate accountability (Jiang et al., 2023). Such preparation ensures that future nurses can handle patient privacy and consent issues in complicated scenarios. Schools must also ensure FERPA compliance by developing an organizational culture that embraces respect, integrity, and responsibility. Discussions with students about the problem of ethical choice-making, self-organization, and the outcomes of privacy violations are necessary and should be carried out without any limitations. Students are given reflective exercises or case scenarios regarding critical thinking and moral reasoning (Elliott et al., 2020). Continuing with the help of mentors and peers and ethical modeling fosters students to act with integrity. NURS FPX 6103 Assessment 5 Teaching About Legal and Ethical Issues Simulation-based training can also be effective in enhancing the students’ knowledge and attitudes concerning ethical behaviors; and allowing them to practice theories learned in the classroom. Institutions need to improve the current policies to address issues of FERPA violations and their consequences clearly and to ensure that the aspects of privacy regulations are enhanced. In this way, nursing educators can equip students to face the ethical and legal requirements that are expected from them. This also warrants the production of competent, morally responsible nurses who can produce quality output in their practice (Jiang et al., 2023). In the long run, an ethical culture in nursing education protects the integrity of institutions, as well as faith and responsibility in healthcare organizations. Change Management Strategy Education change management is one of the essential and critical success factors influencing the perception of nurse educators and Nursing students toward FERPA compliance. Lewin’s change management model, which consists of three processes, unfreezing, changing, and refreezing, can help with this transition. In the unfreezing stage, the clinical educators and staff are made aware of the FERPA regulations, especially on the wrongdoing of sharing details of a student’s performance with other colleagues or a potential employer. In this phase, educators, nurses, and students are encouraged to discuss the implications of policy infringement and the significance of ethical behavior. It is suggested that educational sessions focus on the possible legal and professional consequences, the importance of the agents’ independence, and ways of promoting ethical actions (Hidayat et al., 2020). Discussions on the new policy and its implications constantly remind everyone why change is needed, and the new policy is being implemented. NURS FPX 6103 Assessment 5 Teaching About Legal and Ethical Issues The changing phase, therefore, involves putting into practice the new confidentiality policies and ensuring that clinical educators practice these changes. This can be done through the following training methods: role play and hands-on training on