Hemşi̇reli̇k Yönetmeli̇ği̇'ni̇n 6. maddesi̇ne uygun hareket eden hemşi̇re cezalandirilabi̇li̇r mi̇?

Abstract

According to Nursing Regulations Art. 6/1-b, "although nurses predict the potantial damage about medical diagnosis and treatment, they discuss the situation with the doctor and if the doctor insist on practising the process, they follow the process given by doctors according to their written request." It is clear that doctor who gives the order that forms a basis of crime will be held liable in criminal law (also according to administrative law and public law), but the problem here is whether nurses who follow the orders will be held liable or not. Even though within this problem, code (law) has seen as enforcement of legal provision, here, there is no legal provision and as a matter of fact, the regulation breaches both Turkish Constitution (Art. 137) and Code (Turkish Criminal Code Art. 24) and also lack of regulations on the orders that may become a crime during its application, assessing in the eye of this matter would be defective. Law (or regulation) does not regulate the matter of order, but it regulates on giving instructions to nurses by doctors about medical intervention in a concrete case and their relationship in "receiving ordersgiving orders". The problem here occurs in this article, when this relationship constituted with the law or regulation and when there is a concerete case on doctors and nurses are in the same medical intervention team and nurses follow the order given by doctors. That's why, the problem originated by the regulation doesn't occur because of the cooperation between nurse and doctor and their relationship about giving and taking instructions about orders, but it is related to the matter of order and how nurses can predict the crime related result. The order given within this relationship doesn't really related to the subject of this problem examined in this article and this cooperation and following the instructions are related to medical law and law itself. For assessing clearly, that relevant regulations can exculpate criminal liability of nurse, constitutional and legal provisions about carrying out the order given by competent authority should be examined. Turkish legislation forbids to justify criminal order that is regulated by regulation. Despite of the provisions of the regulations, a nurse who follows orders will be held responsible in addition to the liability of doctor who gives the order.