Use of Ethical Principles to Combat Stigma in Psychiatric Nursing
Stigma greatly affects people with mental illness. A large portion of the population fears and socially rejects people with mental illness. Unfortunately, this includes nurses and mental health care professionals (Sobstyl, week 6). Also, stigma is a hindrance for the mentally ill that are in the preliminary stage of the illness to seek for help (Sobstyl, week 6). Often, they seek out professional help when their mental illness already reached a more serious stage. Having said that, psychiatric nurses play a fundamental role in helping patients with mental illness combat stigma. In order to achieve this, psychiatric nurses needs to be equipped with ethical theories like deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and ethics of care as this will ultimately serve as their grounds for truth (Yeo, 49). This essay will discuss why deontology is the best ethical approach in psychiatric nursing to combat stigma surrounding mental illness. In addition, this essay will point out visible contributions and weaknesses of the other mentioned ethical theories and show examples of their practical application.
Deontology is a philosophical theory based on a universal moral duty. I found this theory as the best approach in psychiatric nursing to combat stigma in mental illness. The first and most important reason why I chose this theory is because deontology treats everyone equally and protects people’s rights (Sobstyl,week 3). Having mentioned that, deontological reasoning will always refer to the mentally ill as persons regardless of their physical or mental state. This is very important because people suffering from mental illness are vulnerable minorities which are to be protected, and treated equally. Deontology is often compared to the golden rule (Gibson, 2004). In other words before I can label a person with mental illness as a societal burden, I need to ask myself. What if I am the one with the mental illness, would I want people to label me as burden? The answer is no.
Deontology is a philosophical theory based on a universal moral duty. I found this theory as the best approach in psychiatric nursing to combat stigma in mental illness. The first and most important reason why I chose this theory is because deontology treats everyone equally and protects people’s rights (Sobstyl,week 3). Having mentioned that, deontological reasoning will always refer to the mentally ill as persons regardless of their physical or mental state. This is very important because people suffering from mental illness are vulnerable minorities which are to be protected, and treated equally. Deontology is often compared to the golden rule (Gibson, 2004). In other words before I can label a person with mental illness as a societal burden, I need to ask myself. What if I am the one with the mental illness, would I want people to label me as burden? The answer is no.