A Brief Summary Shopper '

Shopper: Hello, what are you reading there?
Me: Hi, I am reading A Little of Philosophy while I am waiting to check out. Have you ever read this book?
Shopper: No never!
Me: It is a great book to read.
Shopper: Yes, but what made you read this particular book?
Me: I am reading this book because I am a future healthcare professional and I feel that studying ethics will be helpful to me when I am working with patients.
Shopper: How is that so?
Me: Studying ethics will make me a competent and responsible nurse. I will also be able to care for and show compassion, both of which are moral, to my patients. Philosophy, especially, ethics, studies the nature of the moral virtues and how to become a more virtuous person. There are also philosophical
issues that come up in nursing that I to well prepared for so studying ethics will help me do so. I chose to study three philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, John Stuart Mill, and Albert Camus because I feel that their beliefs are very important to our everyday lives and healthcare today.

Camus believed that if we decide that a life without some essential purpose or meaning is not worth living, we can simply choose to kill ourselves.
Camus dismisses this choice as dastardly because suicide is not an option. I feel that his belief can help me assist a patient that is suicidal to receive the proper help by referring them to a specialist or making play a part in making a decision to hospitalize a patient so they will not cause harm to themselves or
others.
The next philosopher that I am reading about is John Mill believed in utilitarianism which means people can seek the good of the person who does any act. The goodness of the act itself is constant with its consequences. This belief is useful to me because I will be aware that when I am seeing patients I know that my patients will be treated fairly no matter if I am seeing a healthy young adult, or a sick elderly person, they will have equal care.
The last philosopher that I will discuss with you is John Sartre who believed in Existentialism.
He believed that existence is absurd and that life has no meaning, but death is the ultimate stupidity. Existence undoes everything that life has been building up to and that one is born by chance and one dies by chance. There is absolutely no God. Sartre believed that an individual is responsible for making himself into an essence, of lifting himself beyond the level of mere existence. Though I disagree with his theory, I feel that his theory would be useful to me as a healthcare professional because I can educate my patients on the meaning of life by discussing why they should come to the doctor for yearly visits with the physicians so it can help them live longer. Also, for my patients who feel wants to question their own identity or purpose in life, I can help that person seek out a psychologist to speak to discuss why they are feeling that way so we all as health professional can nurse the patient back to feeling happy and living a more meaningful life.
You see ethics is important in healthcare as it is in our daily lives. As a future nurse, if I am ever faced with an ethical dilemma whether it is patient safety, life or death situations, or patient rights, I want to know how to handle each situation with dignity. If you study ethics you could build you own set of ethical beliefs and be able to think and act clearly when making decisions in your life. If we all practice good
ethical behavior then we will be able to find inner peace as well as being more focused in life.

Shopper: Wow! That was interesting. I guess I never really though that ethics really DOES play a role in everything that we do such as eating, voting, or what to buy from the grocery store. Now you have me thinking about a decision that I have made in the past that maybe was not the best because I did not use my greatest judgement, but perhaps if I read more on ethics, I will be able to eliminate poor judgements. I will replace them with better, sounder judgements because my thought process will be more stable and clear. Thank you so much for educating me on why I should study ethics.
Me: It was my pleasure, Thank you taking the time to listen to me.
Cashier: You are next to check out.