Have You Ever Been Involved In An Ethical Dilemma

The topic of ethics is prevalent in health care and addresses a broad range of topics in nursing. In almost every interaction with a patient there could be a situation that may bring up the question of ethics. Fortunately, there is the realization that placing the nurse in the care of a patient, may put the medical personnel in an environment where the ethics are questioned. There are whole departments dedicated to advising nurses in these situations. There are also ethic committees to help guide you when you find yourself in a situation that may question your practice or circumstances.

As the nursing profession progresses throughout the years, its nature becomes more complex in meeting the professional standards and codes of ethics that are required by all nurses. The American Nurses Association has a specific code of ethics that each nurse should follow and adopt as their own beliefs. The public and the patients should be the priority when providing care in the healthcare setting. The knowledge and education that nurses’ gain is valuable and allows them to encourage health, avoid illness, restore health, and aid in coping for those who are all ill. (LeMone, pp.192) Given that the code of ethics is put into place, there are many registered nurses who violate these codes in various situations. The following will discuss

Nurses are facing many legal or ethical dilemmas in their career. Nurses should combine knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice. It is very essential to know what kind of dilemmas nurses may face during their profession and how they have been dealt with in the past.

The history of ethics has been around for a long time. Nurses have an ethical obligation to care for patientsand do no harm. Ethical conflicts and dilemmas occur every day in the health care world. “Ethics is defined as the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession”(FARLEX, 2011).The nurse should have the adequate skills and experience to provide great care to the patient. Nurses should always accept their moral and responsibilities that come along with their job and

Nursing is not an easy job and those who chose it as their profession are truly special people. Nurses are confronted with ethical decisions that need to be made on a daily basis. Often they know the right thing to do but because of circumstances like institutional structure and conflicts with others, obstacles are created and distress ensues (Jenner, 2001). It is during times like these that nurses must rely on the training that they have received as well as the code of ethics that has been set down for their profession in order to do the right thing.

I believe that ethics is the moral compass we use to make decisions for our patient in providing them with safe and quality healthcare. It makes us ask the questions of right and wrong as we advocate for them. The minute we become a nurse, we are constantly faced with ethical dilemmas. Some may be minute in scale but others are on the grand scale, such as end of life issues. It is very important for the nurse to understand their own beliefs and values when we enter into our work environment. There are times when our own opinion is not relevant to the circumstances of the patient and we need to keep them to ourselves. I might have a different view about why some people do or do not get the annual influenza vaccination. Yet there are time

Nurses are faced with ethical issues and dilemmas on a regular basis. Nurses must understand his or her values and morals to be able to deal adequately with the ethical issues he or she is faced with. Some ethical issues nurses are exposed to may be more difficult than others and the ethical decision making process is learned over time.

According to Doane and Varcoe (2015) ethical inquiry is essential about the question, what is good, right and just that nurse must incorporate into their nursing practice to afford ethical problem. This form of inquiry emphasizes that every moment of nursing interaction involve ethics and that ethics is a “deeply personal process that is lived in the complexity and ambiguity of everyday nursing work” (Doane & Varcoe, 2015). When complexity and ambiguity of nursing practice is apparent to nurses through the involvement in caring for patient, then ethic of care can be brought forward as a compass to guide moral decision making and ethical care. As stated by Doane and Varcoe that research has shown that when staff and other resources are scarce,

According to Bandman E, nurses face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis regardless of where nurses function in their varied roles. They are faced with ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. He concluded that there is no "right" solution to ethical dilemmas. Some of the ethical issues that might come up during my advocacy campaign include quantity vs. quality. The community has a well-established exercise room, but it is not inclusive enough. Those who should have

Nursing Ethics, like medical ethics is framed by the principle of “first do no harm”. Ethics then provides us with the framework for making decisions based on what is right for our patients and what is wrong for our patients. (Marquis, pg.69) The ethical principle best served by our policy proposal is the principle of beneficence, which urges us to do the most good for the most people. (Marquis, pg. 74) Justification for our policy’s ethical position is proved by Aiken’s 2014 paper which demonstrated that staffing ratios in the acute care hospital settings have been shown to decrease mortality by 7% for each fewer patient added to a nurse’s workload within 30 days of admission (Aiken, 2014). Achievement of

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).

I think that my personal values, my knowledge and my nursing experience as well as our very cooperative team who help individuals get well being from their illness and needs inspire and keep me in motion. Values are the language that has evolved to identify intrinsic things a person, group, or society holds dear. (Purtilo, R, & Doherty, R. 2012. P5). Ethics are defined as the governing rules which guide nurses to act in the right direction during their nursing practice. I can able to provide the best care to my patients with the help of these ethics. Morals in nursing are defined as the rules that help nurses distinguish between right and wrong and at the same time decide on the plan of action. Sometimes, my personal values, philosophy and worldview may conflict with my obligation to medical practice, creating an ethical dilemma. For example, I took care of a patient who had Caesarean section(C/S). She wanted to eat potato chips, but due to her having just taken medication to relax her bowels and a history of intestinal complications, she was ordered by the doctor to not eat the chips. As a person, I wanted to let her eat the chips, but as a nurse, I was obligated to not let her. I then explained to her the reasons as to why she could not eat the chips. She then complied and was discharged shortly after with no

Nurses are constantly challenged by changes which occur in their practice environment and are under the influence of internal or external factors. Due to the increased complexity of the health system, nowadays nurses are faced with ethical and legal decisions and often come across dilemmas regarding patient care. From this perspective a good question to be raised would be whether or not nurses have the necessary background, knowledge and skills to make appropriate legal and ethical decisions. Even though most nursing programs cover the ethical and moral issues in health care, it is questionable if new nurses have the depth of knowledge and understanding of these issues and apply them in their practice

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.

Ethical Principles Nurses are required to make responsible judgments, decisions, and actions. Consequently, they have to uphold the ethics governing the profession, and guarantee quality and safety when making decisions related to patients. In addition, nurses should respect patients and remain unobstructed by their social or economic status, individual attributes, or medical conditions (Winland-Brown, Lachman, & Swanson, 2015a). Nurses should promote health and care, preserve wholeness of character and honesty, and observe professionalism (Winland-Brown, Lachman, & Swanson, 2015b). In addition, they have to be accountable for every single decision that they make.