Ethical Dilemmas For Nurses

Ethical issues have always affected the role of the professional nurse. Efforts to enact this standard may cause conflict in health care settings in which the traditional roles of the nurse are delineated within a bureaucratic structure. Nurses have more direct contact with patients than one can even imagine, which plays a huge role in protecting the patients’ rights, and creating ethical issues for the nurses caring for the various patients they are assigned to. In this paper I will discuss some of the ethical and legal issues that nurses are faced with each and every day.

#1. According to Nursing Leadership and management ATI ethics is defined as an expected behavior of a certain group in relation to what is considered right or wrong. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016) There are six ethical principles they are autonomy which is the ability of the client to make personal decisions, even when those decisions might not be in the client’s own best interest. The second principle is beneficence which is care in the best interest of the client. Third is fidelity which is keeping ones promise to the client about care that was offered. The next principle is justice which is fair treatment in matters related to physical and psychological care and use of resources. Then there is non-maleficence which is the nurse’s obligation to avoid causing harm to the client. The last principle is veracity which is the nurse’s duty to tell the truth. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016)

In clinical setting, nurses face ethical dilemmas everyday. There is no perfect answer to ethical dilemmas in clinical area. It is important to identify ethics related situation, work as a team to address these problems and provide support for patient and families. Dealing with dilemmas is not just a nursing issue. But the role and function of nurses could affect whole team member and their patients too. In the given scenario, two different views of parents for the sick child create dilemmas. Mother (biological parent) insists that no medical treatment for religious reasons but in the other hand father (biological parents) insist for medical treatment and consultation. This paper discusses the ethical dilemma of given scenario and the solution by using Uustal’s ethical decision making.

Cost of the end of life medical care is too expensive to continue at the rate it is going. The fiscal year 2016 saw 672.1 billion dollars spent on Medicare participants with just 5% using 49% of those monies ("NHE Fact Sheet," n.d., p. 1). The ANA provides a code of ethics that nurses should use to help guide them in clinical practice decision making. There are four fundamental responsibilities for nurses to adhere too they are: promote health, prevent illness, restore health and alleviate suffering. Ethical Principals for nurses are; respect & autonomy, beneficence, justice, veracity, and fidelity ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2012). Attempting to keep ethical responsibilities and principals in mind, while conducting a cost-benefit analysis to determine resource allocation for an aging population and end of life care causes many ethical dilemmas.

Autonomy is the concept of making a rational decision that is informed and un-coerced. Respect for autonomy is whereby the patient is allowed to act in any way they would like. It means that the patient has the capacity to act in their own intention with their own understanding and without the control of any influences that would prevent them from taking a voluntary and free action ADDIN EN.CITE Hickman20081382(Hickman, Cartwright, & Young, 2008)1382138217Hickman, Susan E.Cartwright, Juliana C.Young, Heather M.Administrators' Perspectives on Ethical Issues in Long-Term Care ResearchJournal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: An International JournalJournal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: An International Journal69-78312008University of California Press15562646http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jer.2008.3.1.69( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_5" o "Hickman, 2008 #1382" Hickman, Cartwright, & Young, 2008). Its corresponding virtue is that of being respectful ADDIN EN.CITE Beauchamp20091384(Beauchamp & Childress, 2009)138413846Beauchamp, T.L.Childress, J.F.Principles of Biomedical Ethics2009New York, NYOxford University Press9780195143317http://books.google.com/books?id=_14H7MOw1o4C( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o "Beauchamp, 2009 #1384" Beauchamp & Childress, 2009).

Time, cost, and efficiency. Those three barriers are the challenges within Bellin’s current refill team covering six clinics. Beginning with medications not being filled at office visits. Patient’s changing pharmacy’s. Refills remain that the pharmacy and patients reading their medication bottles that state Refills remaining:0 and that is only due to the last older script being pulled from the pharmacy file. A new script has been often sent in but doesn’t register when a patient picks up a new script bringing the patient to call the clinic for a refill. When really a new script is on hand at the pharmacy already. So, then I research and verify with the pharmacy. Then there is the common scenario of the patient calling the clinic requesting

The role of ethics in organizational behavior is the underlying factor to the success and longevity of any organization. A set of rules and guidelines focusing on promoting safety, trust, and responsible practice within the workplace must be established internally. Organizations develop code of ethics that center upon the promotion of good. Ethics are vital in developing trusting relationships between employees and administration within.

Ethical and legal dilemmas are issues that nurses face in their professional careers. Nurses are accountable for safe and appropriate administration of medication. With the growth in malpractice lawsuits it is important that nurses take certain precautions to limit the risk of lawsuits. “Nurses can limit the risk of liability through maintaining open communication with patients, expertise in practice, attention to details, and autonomy. (Burkhart &Nathanial, 2013).

Nurses are responsible for being ethical, competent, safe, and stay consistent with local, state, and federal laws. They must have an understanding of how to apply these principles when providing care to a client, they are not only responsible for understanding but also protecting client’s rights. Clients who are in a mental health setting have legal rights and they are guaranteed the same rights as any other person. These rights include, the right to humane treatment and care, the right to vote, the rights related to granting, forfeiture, or denial of a driver’s license, the right to press legal charges against another person, they have the right to refuse treatment, a right to confidentiality,

Nurses are faced with many ethical and legal issues, such as protecting and maintaining the patient privacy and confidentiality. “A dilemma can arise when confidential information is requested by family members or friends of the patient” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). As nurses during our pinning ceremony we took the “the Nightingale Pledge promised to do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affair” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). Protecting and maintaining patient confidentiality is a serious matter and you can be fined and faced with federal charges, if you are found guilty.

An Ethical dilemma is a problem without a satisfactory resolution. Nurses can face ethical dilemmas everyday whilst at work in almost any work setting. Ethics involve doing ‘good’ whilst causing no harm to the patient, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to ethics. There are many ethical issues in nursing which come daily and as a nurse they must make a decision. The decision they will have to make will be affected by many different factors, including own personal opinion or beliefs, experiences and what they would have learned at nursing school.

Nurses face ethical dilemmas each day. Whether its dealing with the patient or family members. A few ethical concerns are the patient right to refuse care, death and dying, and the ability to perform task due to it being a cost-effective issue (Yoder-Wise, 2015). Care may be compromise when the patient refuses which leads to more time spent in the hospital. Death and dying effects everyone because nurses may not be willingly to give proper medications and feel they are the ones killing the patient. Patients who are readmitted within 30 days causes the hospital to lose out on reimbursement through Medicare. This can lead to more cost saving concerns for each unit in the hospital for having enough staff and being careful on how many supplies

Picture your loved one in an independent senior residence, where they can do mostly everything on their own. This sounds great until they have an emergency medical issues and the nurses that are on staff refuse to help based on their interpretation of the company policy. As a nurse, they should be trained how to handle emergencies, but in this instance the person lost their life because the nurse did not take any action. This happened to 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless, who stopped breathing and the nurse at Brookdale Senior Living Center refused to do anything or allow anyone else to do anything based on what she read in the company policy. Since state or federal departments of health license or regulate independent or assisted living centers it can

I enjoyed your thoughtful post. As I pondered your ending question, it seems unfair to drain the healthcare system of money and resources for a person who refuses to take care of their own health. This is where ethical dilemmas become a reality. As nurses, we have all cared for that patient. They refuse to follow the doctor’s orders and return to the hospital unit time and time again with the same issue, as before, but each time it gets just a little worse. They are laying in the hospital bed barely able to catch their breath and state, “This time, I’m going to quit smoking. You won’t see me here again.” But sure enough, they once again return with an exacerbation of their symptoms and the care starts all over again. As a nurse, it is easy