Ethics And Values Play A Major Role Of Nursing Professionalism

As a registered nurse practicing in the state of California I am responsible for practicing within my states legal regulations and nursing scope of practice. My concern for the welfare of the sick and injured allows me to practice ethical provisions of nursing. These are required if I am to carry out competent and effective nursing care. Nursing encompasses the prevention of illness, the alleviation of suffering, and the protection, promotion, and restoration of health in the care of individuals. Therefore, as health care professionals we must be familiar with the different philosophical forces, ethical principles, theories and values that influence nursing. At the same time, we must be respectful to our patient’s

The guiding principles of Catholic Social Teaching have the overarching, dominating theme of human dignity (Condit, 2016, p. 371). The focus is, that human beings were formed in God’s image and in return, humanities purpose is to follow in God’s footsteps and portray the same love and grace (Coleman, 2008) (Condit, 2016, p. 371). Consequently, this affects how human beings interact with each other, requiring commitment, to look after, encourage, maintain and promote each other (Coleman, 2008) (Herbert, 2016, p. 7). One way to apply, this Catholic Social Teaching of human dignity, is to understand the nurse’s relationship with the patient. Nurses need to approach the patient with respect and maintain the person’s privacy, acknowledging that they are a fellow human being, with their own personal characteristics and beliefs (Condit, 2016, p. 371) (Walsh & Kowanko, 2002, p. 143-144, 149).

There are many different roles and values within the profession of nursing. Each of these roles and values has a different job description and purpose, yet they all contain one common link. The link that connects the different roles in the nursing profession is the fact that they each rely on nursing research, theories, and evidence based practice to provide safe, quality care to patients. Without nursing research, theories, and evidence based practice, nursing care would be based on trial and error methods that often cause more harm than good to the patient.

This essay will discuss and reflect on one of the Principles of Nursing Practice and I will relate this to my practice experience. It will focus on Principle of Nursing Practice A: Dignity, humanity and equality and I will demonstrate knowledge of the Principle of Nursing Practice in my essay and investigate the professional, legal and ethical frameworks that guide nursing practice and discuss and link what I have experienced in practice to my chosen Principle.

Professional values are the foundation for practice; they guide interactions with client, colleagues, other professionals, and the public, by providing the framework for commitment to the Welfare of others. They are also belief or ideas to which an individual is committed and which are reflected in patterns of behavior. Institute of medicine (2000). In this article, I will define Altruism, Autonomy, Human Dignity, Integrity, and Social Justice. I will also identify how these values are demonstrated in our every day lives by other nurses and myself. According to Dougherty (1992) “Altruism is a concern

Healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to respect patient’s wishes. Consequently, many legal and ethical dilemmas arise in healthcare in response to clinical decisions related to the needs, beliefs, and preferences of patients and families. Other dilemmas result over concerns about the integrity, competence, or actions of other healthcare professionals. Preserving human dignity, relieving suffering, equality, integrity, and accountability are essential nursing values (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, 2015). Nurse leaders have an

This essay will consider ethics in nursing, discuss values and morals and how dignity and respect in patient care is influenced; considering the importance of reflection and the implications it has on effective practice from the perspective of a student nurse. The scenario “Call Me Joe” provided by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2010a) highlights concerning issues and bad practice that are happening in modern day nursing practice, and using the Driscoll and Teh (2001) reflective model: What, Now What and So What, to consider the care that Joe is receiving; considering how the nursing practice affects him directly and the implications of the nature of knowledge in nursing practice. Part of the way in which nursing practice is

An underlining principle that forms all nursing practice is respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals. (Jimenez-Lopez, Roales-Nieto, Seco, Preciado, 2016) Nurses are to always treat all patients with dignity. For example, closing doors before you start providing patient care. It’s also essential as a nurse to respect patients regardless of their background, race, culture, value system, or spiritual belief. (Jimenez-Lopez, et al., 2016)

A nurse is given an opportunity to help patients, either if its by helping them through a very serious sickness or just helping a patient get to the bathroom on time, or a time when happiness is overfilling the room and a child is being born. Registered nurses provide a wide variety of patient care services (Mitchell, p.12). A Nurse must always know where to begin and where to stop, as any other career in the health field there is always something that cannot be done by everyone but only the certified person, a nurse must always remain inside her scope of practice to prevent any misunderstandings. A nurse must also follow a code of ethics , the code of ethics of the American Association of Medical Assistants states that a nurse should at all times render service with full respect and dignity of humanity, respect confidential information obtained by a patients file, uphold the honor and high principles the profession and accept its discipline, and last but not least always want to improve her services to better serve the health and well being of the community. (Mitchell, p.65).

dignity of the patient are essential components of caring. Caring in nursing is there to meet the

The RCN’s (2008) definition of dignity is seen to be the ‘foundation of excellence in nursing practice’. The definition is concerned with how nurses care about individuals by how they support patient autonomy and choice (Barker 2000).

Human dignity is respect for an individual regardless of sex, race, or gender. This ethical principle promotes respect for life, freedom and privacy. A nurse can promote dignity by providing patient privacy during nursing care procedures, allowing independence, and upholding the cleanliness of the patient. For the nurse, human dignity does not only apply to patients but also to our peer and colleagues. The nursing student can promote human dignity by being respectful to his or her fellow classmates, faculty, and staff. They can also promote dignity by decreasing prejudice, judgment and competition among students (Shaw & Degazon, 2008).

Furthermore, integrity is very important in the nursing profession because it represents moral principles, honesty and sincerity. Nurses demonstrate integrity every day; most importantly, integrity is illustrated in every action in a nurse’s role. Hence, integrity is accepting responsibilities for one’s actions and helping rather than harming. The best example for integrity in the nursing filed is not leaving undone duties from one shift to another, this is best described as helping one another instead of making it difficult for each other. Another important aspect of caring is human dignity, which is described as the right to be treated with honor and respect. People should not be judged or classified; accordingly, no matter how a person’s appearance is illustrated, every human being has the right to be treated with dignity by demonstrating honor and respect. Culture has a great impact in today’s society, different cultures have unequal believes; thus, nurse’s need to respect those believes and provide quality care for those patients accordingly. For instance, in some cultures people do not believe in certain medications; as a result, the

Ethics is an essential aspect of health care practice and those working in the nursing profession are often subject to frequent ethical dilemmas. It is essential for all nurses to be aware of the importance of ethics in health care and to practice within the ethico-legal parameters that govern the profession. However, while this is relatively easy in theory, ethics is not a black and white subject and often one’s culture, upbringing, attitudes and beliefs can influence what one views as ethical and this can therefore influence practice. This report will discuss the importance of ethics in nursing practice. The definition of ethics will firstly be presented followed

Dignity is a core element of nursing care. In nurses' clinical practice, maintaining the dignity of patients is an important issue because a lack of dignity in care can affect the health and recovery of patients. To treat a patient with dignity is to treat them in a way that shows they are valued and important, in a way that is appropriate and respectful to the individual. A patient needs to feel safe and secure in the nurses care and should be made feel comfortable, in control and valued at all times.