What Is Ethical Dilemmas?

Ethical dilemma happens every single day; some people may recognize it, while others do not. Although ethical dilemma can happen to anyone or anywhere, nurses and health care professionals are the ones who face more ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Whether it’s about medication administration, patient safety, patient rights, patient care, delegation etc., nurses always face ethical dilemma. While you may not think promoting self management in depressed old patient does not seem to have any ethical dilemma behind it, well, it has. Promoting self management to depressed old patient can be a challenge, especially in their state of mind and condition. According to Holm & Severinsson (2014) “ethical dilemmas arise from conflicting values, norms,
In this case, nurses that are taking care of depressed old patients must have an experience in psychiatric care or mental health care. This way, they will be able to work best with these types of patients. Experienced psychiatric nurse work with variety of mentally ill patients, including those who have depression, and they fit the criteria that must attend these patients. Nurses who are taking care of these patients must include the patient in the plan of care and collaborate with their physicians in order to deliver the best of care. According to the Nurse Practice Act” Registered Nurse duties included; competency required: managing the cases of patients assigned to him or her by coordinating service and collaborating with other health care professionals in the provision of health care services” (NRS 632.120). In the plan of care, nurses must encourage and emphasize the patients on their individual strength and focus on what they can still
The community healthcare system and organization need to build commitment and trust. One way to achieve this is to increase the level of ethical discussion and reflections in the community when caring for depressed older patients. Ethical discussions can help different groups of healthcare providers to cope with ethical dilemmas.
This is especially true when it comes to helping other groups in the health care on how to cope with ethical dilemmas. Having a discussion about ethical dilemma on a daily basis or at least once a week will surely help nurses and other health care professionals on how to cope with different types of ethical dilemmas they face. Encourage nurses and give them the opportunity to speak up and express how they feel about the ethical dilemmas. In this way, nurses will learn from each other, because each nurse will have their own way on how to address, cope, and approach different ethical