Importance of Ethical Theory in Nursing

The study of ethics concentrates on understanding human conduct and actions and evaluating whether those actions are good or bad, desirable or undesirable (Ivanov & Oden, 2013). The ethical principles provide a foundation for nursing practice. They provide a framework to support moral behavior and decision making in the nursing practice. The five primary and basic ethical principles of the nursing practice include respect for autonomy, justice, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and paternalism. Secondary principles include veracity, confidentiality, and fidelity.

Ethics is determined as making valued judgements to the means or end of care in order to ‘be a good nurse’. Furthermore code of conducts within nursing are based around principle ethics as well as medical ethics and states the rules the professional must abide by. It has involved or created various debates or complex issues that can be frequently argued; for example, euthanasia and whether is should be legalised in the United Kingdom, as it is in other countries. (Berridge, P. et al Liddle, C. 2010 p29-42).

Ethical practice is another component of the social contract of nursing which is a reflection of the values, beliefs and moral principles of the nursing profession. The American Nurses Association (ANA) has established the “Code of Ethics for Nurses” which serves as a “guideline” for the nursing profession in which clinical judgements and

An ethical dilemma is defined as a mental state when the nurse has to make a choice between the options and choices that he or she has at her disposal. The choice is a crucial task as the opting of the step will subsequently determine the health status of the concerned patient, hence it requires a great deal of wisdom along with proper medical and health training before any such step is opted as it is a matter of life and death. Strong emphasis should therefore be on the acquisition of proper knowledge and skills so that nurses do posses the autonomy to interact with patients regarding ethical issues involved in health care affairs and address them efficiently. It is normally argued that nurses are not provided sufficient

The importance of ethical theory plays a large role in nursing practices. It is often difficult to understand where the lines of confidentiality should be drawn, so in order to help decipher the feelings nurse practitioners have of what they consider to be fair or unfair, there are a number of ethical theories that can be used in order to

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

Following the appropriate ethics is of extreme importance in the nursing profession. “Ethics are of universal concern and crucial in all professional healthcare” (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420). The leading goal in nursing is to achieve patient-centered care. According to Arnold and Boggs (2016), “Patient centered care focuses on fully partnering with the client to provide care that incorporates his or her values and preferences to give safe, caring, compassionate and effective care” (p.25). In order to provide a well-grounded, caring environment, nurses need to be able to balance their personal differences with the ethical care standards they are obligated to provide patients (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017). Nurses spend the most time with patients; therefore, they eventually will develop a “sense of rightness” (Gustfasson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420).

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,

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.

Butts and Rich (1-26) point out that effective nursing requires both broad knowledge and a set of well developed abilities and skills. The required tasks, are many and varied and in order to do them properly, care must be taken to respect each patient's rights and sensitivities. This is why, according to the authors, nursing care must be guided by a code of ethics. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and discussion of the "Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements" developed by the American Association of Nurses (ANA 1-2).

There are many different careers which entail much more than just a particular degree from a post-secondary education program. Typically, all careers have a specific code and level of ethics which are incorporated into the daily responsibilities one is expected to perform in their chosen field. For the basis of this paper, I have chosen to write about the nursing code of ethics. Nursing has a professional code of ethics along with the level/employee behavior usually being currently attainable, meaning that the behavior expected is normally exhibited by individuals. (Manias 508). However, although nursing seems to require behavior that is “normally” exhibited and tends to be one of the most popular medical fields, there are numerous amounts of ethical issues which have emerged in this field of work since the few being noted in Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing. (Ulrich et al. 2).

There are so many different pathways for a nurse. Regardless of the area of practice, ethical dilemmas will be faced on a regular basis. Arming oneself with knowledge is important to assist in navigation through moral and ethical situations. Examining one’s own personal values and morals helps provide insight into personal convictions and allows for less internal struggle when facing ethical dilemmas.

Effective nursing, in order to properly serve patients as well as the greater community, must necessarily be based on a strong, unshakeable foundation of ethical practice, which can be expressed through various theoretical nursing models. This paper will examine the theoretical basis for author’s own ethical nursing practice, and relate the theoretical discussion to the specific Phenomenon of Interest that was previously identified in earlier papers.

Ethics and Morals play an important role in the nursing profession; nurses are confronted with choices to make every day, and some of them more challenging than others. Ethics are affirmations between what it can be right or erroneous. For our society ethics is presented as a complex system of principles and beliefs. This system serves as an approach with the purpose of ensuring the protection of each individual within the society. On the other hand, morals are basic standards between what is right or wrong; each individual learns to identify these standards during the early stages of human development (Catalano, 2009). A person with morals is usually somebody who recognizes how to respond to the needs of another individual by giving care and keeping a level of responsibility while giving this care (Catalano, 2009).

Codes of ethics contain a coherent set of normative principles underlying a nurse’s purpose and associated values (Vanlaere and Gastmans, 2007). Two perspectives of ethics are the ethics of justice and the ethics of care (Botes, 2000). The ethics of justice constitutes an ethical perspective in terms of which ethical decisions are made on the basis of universal principles and rules, and in an impartial and verifiable manner with a view to ensuring the fair and equitable treatment of all people (Botes, 2000). The ethics of care, on the other hand, constitutes an ethical approach in terms of which involvement, harmonious relations and the needs of others play an important part in ethical decision making in each ethical situation (Botes, 2000).