Ethical Dilemmas In Nursing

Ethical challenges in a professional scope are not something new. Almost every profession, be it that of a lawyer, teacher, medical specialist, organization decision maker or any other, grave decisions often have to be made that put them in ethical dilemma. In the field of nursing, ethical dilemma while rendering patient care is both unnerving and challenging. Way back in 1859, Florence Nightingale had noted about this in her Notes on Nursing. There are matters of duties and responsibilities, decorum and adherence to discipline/regulations, confidentiality and more that often put nurses in positions of critical and ethical decision making. In this article we will look into five ethical challenges that nurses face.

Voicing the Truth: A major ethical dilemma for nurses is to be able to speak the truth or keep it concealed. In a nurse-patient relationship, a nurse’s professional duty is to tell the patient about his/her health, even if it is degenerating. Ethically this may have a detrimental effect on the patient as he/she might feel de-motivated or even lose the urge to try to improve. This is all the more challenging for pediatric nurse practitioners, critical care nurses, rehabilitation nurses among others.
There are times when one questions rules and favors it to take a backseat to humane actions. For instance, should families be allowed to be near their dear ones before a critical surgery that might be fatal? Now medically and scientifically it is rightly not permitted, as one can easily get affected by germs. But the ethical question always