Ethical Dilemmas For Nurses

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.

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)

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.

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.

Discussion Question 1 In Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O'Grady (2014), explains the ethical dilemmas advacned praciticing nurses may or may not encoutner during pracitice. There are three general themes hat emerge when ethical issues arise in the nrusing practice. The three probelms are with comunciation, the presence of interdisplinary confilcit, and nurses' struggles with managing muplitple obligations. A potentil ethical dilemma that I may face as a family nurse pracitioner would be child immunizations.

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

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

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

Ethical dilemmas are a common issue in the health care setting. Since many sensitive topics have no clear right or wrong answer, it is important for nurses to properly understand how to approach these matters. Typically, nurses are the ones who get to know patients on a more personal level by developing a therapeutic relationship with them overtime. Therefore, nurses recognize these complex situations and are required to intervene when it’s necessary. Two principals within the ANA Code of Ethics that pertain to the ethical dilemma I saw are; “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the person, whether an individual or part of a family, group, or community.” and “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the person.” (American Nurses Association (ANA), 2008).

The ethical dilemma is a situation by which it’s difficult to determine whether a situation is can be handled without disappointing both sides. Therefore, an ethical dilemma exists when the right thing to do is clear or when members of the healthcare team cannot agree on the right thing to do. Ethical dilemmas require negotiation of different points of view (potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall 2011pg 78).

Nurses rely on personal knowledge and their professional skills to provide ethical care (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). In everyday practice, nurses must balance the needs of their patients against those of the organization, society and themselves. They strive to deliver the highest level of care for patients, but adjusting for limited organizational and personal resources often requires difficult decisions. This paper explores the following scenario suggested by Maville and Huerta: “You are a nurse providing home care to a mother, and you suspect child abuse after observing the mother’s reaction to her child” (as cited by Arizona State University, 2014). When faced with a moral dilemma, a competent nurse incorporates ethical, bioethical and legal considerations. In the proposed story, incorporating the nursing ethics of advocacy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and collaboration will guide the nurse towards an appropriate and legal course of action.

Jerry, an AIDS patient that is receiving treatment for lymphoma, has asked his physician, and nurse not to disclose the fact that he has AIDS to his wife or lover. This patient does have a right to confidentiality; Albeit, it is not an absolute right. The apparent conflict is that this right to confidentiality is in conflict with the nurse, and doctor’s responsibility to protect the community. There is a standard of practice to protect confidentiality, but there is also a standard of practice to protect society. Communitarian ethics extend the ethical standard to the community, instead of just the individual.

For a nurse in a medical service, ethical decisions occurs from time to time and on occasion nurses may face ethical dilemmas ("Ethical and Legal Issues", 2016). There are many conflicts which arise based on different ethical principles and theories. It could be utilitarianism, deontology, libertarianism, fidelity etc. Utilitarianism is an act of right or wrong depending upon the outcomes acquired from it (Matti, 2013). Considering the role of the registered nurse in caring for Elsie, utilitarianism plays an important role.

Option 2 Nurses encounter so many issues daily whereby they often have to make decisions based on the determination of what is right, wrong or ethical. Ethically, they also have to understand the basis on which they make decisions because the decisions made have to be rational and not based on intuitions or emotions. Nurses also have a commitment to respecting the rights of their patients while providing care and treatment. When I started my nursing career as a Licensed practical nurse I was excited to be a part of such a wonderful profession in healthcare. As a LPN I faced some situations where I had to make certain decisions while wondering whether I had stayed within my scope of practice.