This document provides guidance for an assignment on the ethical and legal implications of prescribing drugs as an advanced practice nurse. It discusses factors to consider when developing a treatment plan, such as the appropriate drug, dosage, administration schedule, and contraindications based on a patient's diagnosis and individual factors. The document emphasizes that nurses have a duty to act ethically and legally when prescribing to avoid harming patients, in accordance with their state's regulations. Students are asked to review scenarios assigned by their instructor and discuss the ethical and legal implications for all stakeholders, as well as strategies for disclosure/nondisclosure of errors and processes for minimizing medication mistakes.

1. Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing
Drugs
What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s
diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive?
How often should the drug be administered? When should the
drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that
could create complications when taking the drug? Should
you
be prescribing drugs to
this
patient? How might different state regulations affect the
prescribing of this drug to this patient?
These are some of the questions you might consider when
selecting a treatment plan for a patient.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Caiaimage
As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held
accountable for people’s lives every day. Patients and their
families will often place trust in you because of your position.
With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as an
ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that
you are aware of current professional, legal, and ethical
standards for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive
authority. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the
treatment plans and administration/prescribing of drugs is in
accordance with the regulations of the state in which you
practice. Understanding how these regulations may affect the
prescribing of certain drugs in different states may have a
significant impact on your patient’s treatment plan. In this
Assignment, you explore ethical and legal implications of
scenarios and consider how to appropriately respond.

2. To Prepare
Review the Resources for this module and consider the legal
and ethical implications of prescribing prescription drugs,
disclosure, and nondisclosure.
Review the scenario assigned by your Instructor for this
Assignment.
Search specific laws and standards for prescribing prescription
drugs and for addressing medication errors for your state or
region, and reflect on these as you review the scenario assigned
by your Instructor.
Consider the ethical and legal implications of the scenario for
all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist,
patient, and patient’s family.
Think about two strategies that you, as an advanced practice
nurse, would use to guide your ethically and legally responsible
decision-making in this scenario, including whether you would
disclose any medication errors.
By Day 7 of Week 1
Write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:
Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you
selected on all stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber,
pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.
Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as

3. identified in the scenario you selected. Be sure to reference
laws specific to your state.
Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse,
would use to guide your decision making in this scenario,
including whether you would disclose your error. Be sure to
justify your explanation.
Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including
strategies to minimize medication errors.
Reminder:
The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted
include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The
College of Nursing Writing Template with Instructions provided
at the Walden Writing Center offers an example of those
required elements (available at
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/templates/gen
eral#s-lg-box-20293632
). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
Learning Resources
Required Readings
(click to expand/reduce)
Rosenthal, L. D., & Burchum, J. R. (2021).
Lehne’s pharmacotherapeutics for advanced practice nurses and
physician assistants
(2nd ed.) St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Chapter 1, “Prescriptive Authority” (pp. 1–3)
Chapter 2, “Rational Drug Selection and Prescription Writing”

4. (pp. 4–7)
Chapter 3, “Promoting Positive Outcomes of Drug Therapy”
(pp. 8–12)
Chapter 4, “Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Drug
Interactions” (pp. 13–33)
Chapter 5, “Adverse Drug Reactions and Medication Errors”
(pp. 34–42)
Chapter 6, “Individual Variation in Drug Response” (pp. 43–45)
American Geriatrics Society 2019 Beers Criteria Update Expert
Panel. (2019). American Geriatrics Society 2019 updated AGS
Beers criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in
older adults.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67
(4), 674–694. doi:10.1111/jgs.15767
American Geriatrics Society 2019 updated AGS Beers criteria
for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults by
American Geriatrics Society, in Journal of the American
Geriatrics Society, Vol. 67/Issue 4. Copyright 2019 by
Blackwell Publishing. Reprinted by permission of Blackwell
Publishing via the Copyright Clearance Center.
This article is an update to the Beers Criteria, which includes
lists of potentially inappropriate medications to be avoided in
older adults as well as newly added criteria that lists select
drugs that should be avoided or have their dose adjusted based
on the individual's kidney function and select drug-drug
interactions documented to be associated with harms in older
adults.

5. Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.-a). Code of federal
regulations. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1300/1300_01.ht
m
This website outlines the code of federal regulations for
prescription drugs.
Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.-b). Mid-level
practitioners authorization by state. Retrieved May 13, 2019
from
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugreg/practioners/index.ht
ml
This website outlines the schedules for controlled substances,
including prescriptive authority for each schedule.
Drug Enforcement Administration. (2006). Practitioner’s
manual. Retrieved from
http://www.legalsideofpain.com/uploads/pract_manual090506.p
df
This manual is a resource for practitioners who prescribe,
dispense, and administer controlled substances. It provides
information on general requirements, security issues,
recordkeeping, prescription requirements, and addiction
treatment programs.
Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.-c). Registration.
Retrieved February 1, 2019, from
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugreg/index.html

6. This website details key aspects of drug registration.
Fowler, M. D. M., & American Nurses Association. (2015).
Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive
Statements: Development, Interpretation, and Application
(2nd ed.). Silver Spring, Maryland: American Nurses
Association.
This resource introduces the code of ethics for nurses and
highlights critical aspects for ethical guideline development,
interpretation, and application in practice.
Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (2017). List of error-
prone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations. Retrieved
from https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/error-prone-
abbreviations-list
This website provides a list of prescription-writing
abbreviations that might lead to misinterpretation, as well as
suggestions for preventing resulting errors.
Ladd, E., & Hoyt, A. (2016). Shedding light on nurse
practitioner prescribing.
The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 12
(3), 166–173. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2015.09.17
This article provides NPs with information regarding state-
based laws for NP prescribing.
Sabatino, J. A., Pruchnicki, M. C., Sevin, A. M., Barker, E.,
Green, C. G., & Porter, K. (2017). Improving prescribing

7. practices: A pharmacist‐led educational intervention for nurse
practitioner students.
Journal of the American Association ofNursePractitioners, 29
(5), 248–254. doi:10.1002/2327-6924.12446
The authors of this article assess the impact of a pharmacist‐led
educational intervention on family nurse practitioner (FNP)
students’ prescribing skills, perception of preparedness to
prescribe, and perception of pharmacist as collaborator.
Required Media
(click to expand/reduce)
Introduction to Advanced Pharmacology
Meet Dr. Terry Buttaro, associate professor of practice at
Simmons College of Nursing and Health Sciences as she
discusses the importance of pharmacology for the advanced
practice nurse. (8m)
Accessible player --Downloads--Download Video
w/CCDownload AudioDownload Transcript
Nature Video. (2016).
The
evolution
of
oral
anticoagulants
[Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp-ucDRiaUA
Note:

8. This media program is approximately 5 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2015).
Pharmacology
–
Pharmocokinetics
(Made Easy)
[Video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKV5iaUVBUI&t=16s
Note:
This media program is approximately 14 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2017).
Pharmacology
–
Diuretics
(Made
Easy)
[Video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OBvNpnS0h4&t=664s
Note:
This media program is approximately 18 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2017).
Pharmacology

9. –
Antiarrhythmic
Drugs
(Made easy)
[Video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSqezCMHnw&t=1205s
Note:
This media program is approximately 23 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2015).
Pharmacology
–
Pharmocokinetics
(Made Easy)
[Video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKV5iaUVBUI&t=16s
Note:
This media program is approximately 14 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2016).
Pharmacology – Adrenergic receptors & agonists
(MADE EASY)
[Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtmV-
yMDYPI&t=372s

10. Note:
This media program is approximately 18 minutes.
Speed Pharmacology. (2017).
Drugs for Hyperlipidemia (Made Easy)
[Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1Aewx-
zRM&t=24s
Note:
This media program is approximately 14 minutes.
pls use three resources for this assignment