The free dictionary defined ethical code as a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct. However, it was noted that no code can provide absolute or complete rules that are free of conflict and ambiguity. Because codes are unable to provide exact directives for moral reasoning and action in all situations, some people have stated that virtue ethics provides a better approach to ethics because the emphasis is on a person’s character than on rules, principles, and laws (Beauchamp & Childress, 2001). The core ethical principles in nursing are;…
Ilene, many of the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses could be eliminated if people would take the time to let their family know what interventions they would want in situations like this. End-of-life planning and advanced care directives will increase the quality of life of a dying patient, ease the ethical decisions having to be made by family members, and will ensure that personal wishes will be abided by (Eggertson, 2013, p. E617). Many people talk about what they do and do not want but never write them down. This leaves the family, doctors, and other health care members second-guessing the wishes of the patient whenever they are too ill or sick to make decisions themselves. If your patient had made these decisions earlier and made it…
In the United States, privacy and confidentiality are the basic rights of the society enshrined not only in professional practice codes of ethics but also in the constitution. Hence, nurses and for that matter, all health care professional have a legal, moral and ethical responsibility to protect patient's privacy.…
However decision making is essential for nurses to participate in order to focus on ethical and moral issues and note situations that appears to be dilemmas with the help of professional and ethical competence (Tschudin, 2002). Moreover unprofessional ethical practice may result to litigations if care was deemed not to be professionally sound.…
The profession of nursing must have high values and ethics, but how does a nurse make that tough ethical decision. Ethical decision making is defined as “The process of choosing between actions based on a system of beliefs and values” (Black, 2014, p. 347). The nurse has to go through a process to come to the most ethical and just decision based on their facility and their ethics.…
In the clinical setting, nurses also encounter ethical dilemmas regarding patient care that do not appear to have a potentially simple solution (Fant, 2012). Such as, a patient’s family…
As a nurse being empathic to the patient is part on my job as professional in as a humain.Nurses are almost always with the patience,sharing their suffering their feeli ngs…
I agree with you opinion especially how it closely relates to and guide nursing practice. I didn’t have too many thoughts about ethic when I was still a nursing student. With more experiences I found ethics are so empowering in making judgements/decisions in nursing care. I always ask myself: am I being truthful to my patients? Am I respecting their wills? Am I being fair to all our patients?…
In this paper I will cover different scopes and guidelines that nursing professionals use in their daily practice and some examples in my practice that are affected by those guidelines. Also how ethics, morals and values affect nursing policies and ways the affect the nurse in providing care.…
“Ethics is not definable, is not implementable, because it is not conscious; it involves not only our thinking, but also our feeling,” Valdemar W. Setzer. According to Fundamentals of Nursing, The Art and Science of Nursing Care, (4th edition)” ethics is a systematic inquiry into principles of right and wrong conduct, of virtue and vice, and of good and evil as they relate to conduct” (84).Taylor, Lillis and LeMone writes,” Nurses are assuming increasing responsibility for managing care and they are prepared to recognize the ethical dimensions of their practice and participate more competently in ethical decision making” (84). Common ethical issues encountered by nurses in daily practice include cost containment issues which jeopardize patient welfare, end-of-life decisions, breaches of patient confidentiality, and incompetent, unethical, or illegal practices of colleagues. However, knowledge of professional ethics, standards of practice, nursing code of ethics and patients “Bill of Rights” assist in resolving ethical problems. Nursing ethics and ethical theories have a significant impact on Nurses professional conduct and practice.…
Prior to this assignment, I thought that medical ethics meant to practice nursing as a prudent nurse would practice, in a socially acceptable way. Ethical behavior is one doing what is right rather than what is wrong. I knew that all medical professionals had to comply with patient confidentiality, but I did not realize that all medical professionals, including writers, were held accountable just as if they were providing bedside patient care. I never considered medical writing before and never wrote medical information, other than charting. Charting is a big part of patient care, so naturally I understood the ethical responsibilities that were associated with charting. I also knew that research professionals were also held to high ethical standards because of their interaction with medical patients. After this assignment, I realized I knew less than I thought I did about medical ethics. I learned that all medical professionals, regardless of their position, are held to a high ethical standard.…
Ethics refers to the study of situations that require practical reasoning. Ethical dilemmas are encountered in many instances of the nursing career. Therefore, some reasons determine particular ethical behaviors. For example, what individual regards as an ethical behavior may be considerably different from another person’s perception of the situation who may be applying a different approach. This situation results in moral distress that arises in the circumstances where a person is unable to decide on the ethical choices that may be available due to the various religious, moral as well as professional constraints (Amoah, 2016). This constraints influence actions that an individual can take or the way they believe is the right or wrong action to take.…
George is an adult male who has chronic renal failure as well as the co-morbidities of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) and diabetes. As George is indigenous and lives on social assistance, these determinants have likely contributed to the development of his co-morbidities and chronic renal failure. Additionally, George has been on dialysis three times a week for 15 years but has lately been missing his dialysis appointments and calling the clinic the next day calling to be dialyzed as he is having respiratory complications. This issue is becoming more prominent and has developed into an ethical issue relevant to the practice of those working in the clinic, particularly the nurses. In particular, by having George call for a last…
S.Z, a 65 year old Hispanic male, is being discharged from hospital after being admitted with a blood sugar of 589. He has been seeing a curandero to manage his diabetes mellitus type II, hyperlipidemia, and osteoarthritis. He has not taken his prescription medications for these chronic conditions, but instead takes traditional medicines the curandero tells him to take. His daughter approaches the nurse with her concerns over her father’s heath and asks the nurse if her father’s discharge orders can be cancelled; the daughter would prefer the doctor write orders for her father to be admitted to a nursing home.…
Great posts. You both make valid points on how best to make the ethical decisions for the hospital. As mentioned nonaleficence would be the ethic principal that should govern the decision process. Floating the nurse my not initially present as a valid option however looking at the situation from a financial aspect the hospital must consider how to best maintain and keep the patient safe with balancing how to continue to keep the hospital running. The hospital is in a financial crisis and is unable to hire employee and cutting existing employee is also not an option at this time. The hospital is already working with limited staff. The best option in this situation is to float the nurses in an effort to distribute the resource they have…