Description of Ethical Issue
Ethics is an area of study that deals with the ideas about what are morally good and bad behaviors (Finkelman & Kenner, 2016). A study of ethical behavior and decision-making about ethical issues in nursing is one of the most important aspects. Nurses are confronted almost daily with ethical challenges in making decisions when there is no right or wrong answer in the provision of patient’s quality care (Ulrich, et al., 2010, p 2510). When it comes to decision-making in healthcare, understandable conflict occurs between health care providers, clients and people in the community about the right thing to do when ethics, values, and decisions about health care collide. Examples include diverse topics such as the ratio of staff, and end of life care. This essay will include a multiple gun shot wound paraplegic patient (Mr. B) refusing treatments including antibiotics and wants to leave Against Medical Advice (AMA) due to frustration from being in hospital for long time. This was the case that happened while I was in one of my clinical sites as nursing students. In addition, this paper will also represent the understanding of ethical principles that apply in case of someone’s refusing treatment.
Ethical Dilemma
Ethical behavior is determined by many factors. For example, the patient I had was refusing treatment and willing to leave AMA upon life saving treatment like having antibiotic on his very infected gunshots wound. He may have a sepsis if
This concept is taken from module 1 of block 6 entitled “Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice”.
An ethical dilemma is defined as a mental state when the nurse has to make a choice between the options and choices that he or she has at her disposal. The choice is a crucial task as the opting of the step will subsequently determine the health status of the concerned patient, hence it requires a great deal of wisdom along with proper medical and health training before any such step is opted as it is a matter of life and death. Strong emphasis should therefore be on the acquisition of proper knowledge and skills so that nurses do posses the autonomy to interact with patients regarding ethical issues involved in health care affairs and address them efficiently. It is normally argued that nurses are not provided sufficient
The question of what is truly the nature of justice remains an unanswered question as noted by Bertrand Russell in ‘The History of Western Philosophy’ wherein he notes that Socrates was unable to provide a convincing rebuttal of Glaucon’s arguments on justice, and neither have all the social philosophers since, been able to do. Amartya Sen, in his book ‘The Idea of Justice’, has
While the nursing profession is fulfilling, it is not without challenges. Nurses are faced with a multitude of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice on a daily basis. According to Fant (2012) no matter where nurses function in their diverse roles, they are faced with ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. Some examples of moral issues that nurses encounter in contemporary nursing practice and research include but not limited to: refusal of treatment, scarcity of resources, disagreement with caregivers, treating patients with impaired decision-making, futile treatment decisions for cancer patients, end-of-life decisions, advanced treatment directives, and euthanasia (Leuter, Petrucci, Mattei, Tabassi, & Lancia, 2013).
There are five principles to ethical nursing. The first principle, nonmaleficence, or do no harm, it is directly tied to a nurse's duty to protect the patient's safety. This principle dictates that we do not cause injury to our patients. A way that harm can occur to patients is through communication failures. These failures can be intentional or as a result of electronic or human error. Failing to convey accurate information, giving wrong messages, and breaking down of equipment, can cause harm to patients. Some of these communication problems may certainly occur whether a patient is at a neighborhood clinic or 500 miles away, but distance and high reliance on electronic technology make close examination of communication and ethical
The purpose of this study, was to create a position paper exploring and creating an ethical dilemma and similarly, to explore and present a decision making model used to work through the dilemma. The study found ways that can assist forensic counselors with this common issue that has prompted numerous legalities filed against them by their evaluees such as, identifying stakeholders and interpreting the situation through awareness and fact finding. Tarvydas’s integrative decision-making of the ethical behavior model can also be essential in solving ethical dilemmas because it incorporates the principle and virtue aspects of decision making approaches. There are four themes or attitudes of the integrative model. Initially, it could be helpful to interpret the situation through awareness and fact finding, consider the facts, responsibilities and rights of all stakeholders involved in the dilemma, formulate ethical decisions, select an action by weighing, competing non moral values, plan and execute the selected course of action and when in doubt forensic counselors can discuss the dilemma with their supervisors.
`Ethics' is defined as ."..the basis on which people...decide that certain actions are right or wrong and whether one ought to do something or has a right to something"(Rumbold, 1986). In relating `ethics' to nursing care, "Nursing decisions affect people... nurses have the power to good or harm to their patients" (Bandman et al, 2002). In this essay, the author will also identify the most important ethical principles and concepts of Evan's case, will outline the different stages of one's approach to ethical decision-making by utilising the "DECIDE Model for Ethical Decision-Making" founded by Thompson et al (2000) and will make a decision on the best course of action to take as a nurse in this
The sequencing of the human genome has a new approach to health care in regards to promotion, maintenance, and treatment. Genetic research is defined as a new approach to a better understanding of the genetic components of common diseases: Cancer, diabetes, stroke, and creating new gene-based technologies for screening, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of both rare and common diseases. Nurses are a main aspect within the first line of care, and therefore will contribute fully in genetic-based and genomic-based practice activities such as collecting family history, obtaining informed consent for genetic testing, and administering gene-based therapies. Lea, D, (January 31, 2008). My paper is based on an article Genomics in the public
An ethical dilemma is an incident that causes us to question how we should react based on our beliefs. A decision needs to be made between right and wrong. I have experienced many ethical dilemmas in my lifetime, so I know that there is no such thing as an ethical dilemma that only affects one person. I also know that some ethical dilemmas are easier to resolve than others are. The easy ones are the ones in which we can make decisions on the spot. For example, if a cashier gives me too much change, I can immediately make a decision to either return the money or keep it. Based on Kant’s, categorical imperative there are two criteria for determining moral right and wrong. First, there is universalizability, which states, “the person’s
It is also necessary for health providers to follow ethical principles such as autonomy, beneficence (doing good), non-maleficence (not doing harm), being truthful and justice while providing care for SUs (New Zealand Nurses Organization, 2010). Even though physicians aware that they need to follow legal and ethical principles in the process of informed consent, some of them are facing challenges in providing adequate information to SUs about side effects of SGAs (Goldfarb et al., 2012). This could be in a belief that the information on side effects may raise SU’s anxiety levels and reduce adherence to medications (Fernandez et al., 2006). However, not sharing information completely to SU with SMI could be reflected as not being truthful and ethically disrespecting SU’s autonomy to make fully informed decisions. Moreover, researchers clearly reported that psychiatrists also preferred sedation as one of the method of controlling SU’s aggressive behavior and acute psychosis in acute settings by using SGAs (Charlton, 2005).
In today's business and personal world, ethical decisions are made on a daily basis. Most of these decisions are based on company ground rules. The others are based on personal ground rules. All decisions can have a number of ground rules that help us determine whether our decision is ethical or unethical. Each decision whether it is based on company or personal ground rules will have its own set of implications. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the impacts of ethics on decision-making, discuss the elements of an ethically defensible decision, define what the ground rules are; what they could be and what they should be, discuss
Moral issues are those that arouse conscience, are concerned with important values and norms. The use of a tool such as the Ethical Decision-Making Algorithm in appendix A, can help the nurse resolve an ethical dilemma more efficiently and competently. Furthermore, the use of a nursing codes of ethics, which are formal statements standard for professional actions can help guild a nurses decisions. Nurses have multiple obligations to balance in moral situation. The Ethical Decision-Making Algorithm will be used to find the best action and outcome for a case study.
Ethical behavior is often seen as amoral when used for persuasive purposes. This is possible because persuasion may be used in unethical situations as well as ethical situations. Either way, it depends upon the person who is trying to persuade others. Adolf Hitler is an excellent example of someone who persuaded millions of people to behave unethically. On the other hand, Mother Teresa used persuasion for ethical reasons by caring for the sick and the orphaned, and because of this has impacted an entire world.
All employees (including the company executives) should be guided by moral principles and ethical values when making decisions (Balc & Simionescu, 2012). The ability of executives to make ethical decisions can be influenced by their cognitive bias (Zeni, Buckley, Mumford & Griffith, 2015). Utilitarianism is one of the frameworks that can be used to address ethical dilemmas. Utilitarianism holds that decision makers should take alternatives that maximize the happiness of the majority of the stakeholders (Choe & Min, 2011 and Marques, 2015). This presentation will discuss how the 8-step ethical decision making process can be applied when addressing a dilemma using the utilitarianism framework. The presentation will also guide the executives of Toyota on how to address the negative publicity associated with the production of cars with faulty acceleration system.
Recognize moral issue: The issues in Fresh Taste NZ Ltd. are rude behaviour of employer with employees, ignorance of basic ethical practices by workers and providing less salary to the workers etc. All these things create ethical disputes at workplace.