Ethical Dilemmas in the Nursing Field

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.

Nurses confront numerous dilemmas throughout their professional lives. The different types of dilemmas include, but are not limited to, ethical, moral, and legal dilemmas. These are the three most common dilemmas in nursing. A dilemma can be defined in many different ways. But all dilemmas are situations in which you have to make a difficult choice. Chiaranai (2011) states that an “ethical dilemma is a circumstance that arises from fundamental conflicts between ethical beliefs, duties, principles and theories” (p. 250). Therefore, an ethical dilemma forces the nurse to address thought on what is right and what the harm might be to the patient.

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 issues in nursing will always be an ongoing learning process. Nurses are taught in nursing school what should be done and how. Scenarios are given on tests with one right answer. However, there are situations that nurses may encounter that may have multiple answers and it is hard to choose one. “Ethical directives are not always clearly evident and people sometimes disagree about what is right and wrong” (Butts & Rich, 2016). When an ethical decision is made by a nurse, there must be a logical justification and not just emotions.

Nurses are the largest and viable caregivers for patients and the community. Critical care Nurses must apply their knowledge and evidence based practice as a practice standard. It is very necessary for the critical care nurse to always check and evaluate the current practice to make sure that they are doing what is supposed to be done. The ethical issue I witnessed at my Clinical rotation and would like to discuss is about turning or rotating a critically ill patient. Is it really necessary and of great importance to know the good habits of turning a critically ill patient without causing unnecessary harm. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) early progressive mobility protocol incorporates turning as a first step in the

Many people encounter ethical issues and ethical decision-making every day of their lives. Each person’s moral values differ depending on one’s religion, culture, family, etc. These moral or ethical values are of utmost importance for the healthcare professionals, especially nurses. Many professional in the healthcare system are confronted by dilemmas which challenges their morality and give rise to many questions. How does the ethical values of a healthcare professional influence the patient? What role do nurses have in ethical issues? Are nurses impacted by their patient’s ethics? These are some of the questions one would frequently ask when taking the ethical issues of nursing into consideration. Many nurses choose this field to provide care for their patient’s; however, they are often encountered with ethical dilemmas that require understanding of the ethical principles and implementing on rules of the healthcare system they are

The health workers are always confronted by the ethical dilemma in the process of performing their duties and responsibilities. An ethical dilemma occurs in the situation an individual makes a decision on the course of action that is best for him or her. It also occurs in the situation there are different courses of actions the person should choose from. An ethical dilemma is defined as the situation in which a person has two options to choose from, and both are morally correct but in conflict.

There are two major ethical dilemma's happened here. The most serious one is nursing possibly with holding proper nursing care from a patient to quicken her death. The second ethical dilemma is a patient holding up an ICU bed that is no longer appropriate for and possibly causing other patients to have unnecessary bad outcomes.

All patients have both a right to treatment and a right to refuse medical care. “Health care laws grant patients the right to control their own care, even in the face of a medical crisis” (FindLaw, 2016). Client’s rights sometimes become a dilemma or debate within health care. Professionals often have to choose a right or wrong, which can vary from nurse to nurse. Frequently, the concern involves patient refusal of: a medication, a simple treatment or procedure, or a cultural issue. While refusal generates concerns, they are not always life threatening. For instance, an elderly patient refuses to eat, but the nurse recognizes the consequences will impair the patient. The question is “Does the nurse have the “right” to make the patient

To obtain personal experience in regards to procurement of knowledge, we must be able to comprehend, develop appreciation and have consciousness within our particular field of discipline. Berragan (1998, p. 210), states that there are four patterns of knowing: empirical, ethical, aesthetic and personal knowledge which is conditioned and sometimes is put together based upon

Nurses face a wide range of ethical and moral dilemmas throughout their career. Ethical dilemmas are situations in which there are conflicting moral claims. In some of these situations people do not know what the ethically right thing to do is. They do not agree about the ethically right thing to do and often cannot find satisfactory solutions or there are two equally unsatisfactory solutions. Or they may know what the ethically right thing to do is, but do not want to act on this.

To fully understand this title it is prudent to define the key terms: knowledge, traditions, areas of knowledge, correctives, and ways of knowing. Knowledge I concluded was any information that we, either as a collective population or individuals, know or believe. Traditions are the knowledge that is passed on from generation to generation. The areas of knowledge are “disciplines in which knowledge may be based”. A corrective is something meant to counteract or correct something else. Finally the ways of knowing are “the methods through which knowledge becomes apparent to us”. Having defined

Knowledge is a combination of what a nurse has learned and experienced in their nursing career (Butts & Rich, 2018, p92). We will discuss an exemplar where expert patient care was delivered using the combined knowledge outlined in the “ways of knowing” as described by Barbara Carper. Utilizing the philosophical analysis provided by Carper we will expand upon the view and understanding of nursing knowledge that was used in the nursing care that was provided (Butts & Rich, p144).

Nurses encounter multitude dilemmas while carrying out their job duties in delivery provision care to patient especially in ethically complex situation. Mr. Lim, an elderly who has Alzheimer disease has to be fed via nasogastric tube (NGT) due to his mental ability which has severely affected his ADL including swallowing. Restrainer was used to prevent patient from pulling out his NGT. The NGT and restraints have caused him a lot of discomfort and stress. His family has requested not to feed and restrain upon seeing bruises on Mr. Lim ‘s arm. has an Advanced Medical Directive and wishes to die with dignity This essay identify the issues faced by Staff Nurse in deciding whether to stop both NG tube feeding and restraint or continue. This will analyze the ethical dilemma arising from Autonomy, Beneficence and Non-maleficence as well as the legal issues pertaining to patient’s rights. Implications for nursing practice will also be discuss in later part.