Nurse Practitioners : The Best Of Both Worlds

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

Registered nurses work alongside physicians providing patient care in a variety of ways. A few examples of what nurses are responsible for include: administering medications, tracking patient’s vital signs, helping to diagnose and properly treat patient aliments and educating the patient and their family on their condition and the course of treatment. Depending on what area of medicine a nurse works in will determine more generalized and specific duties and responsibilities. There are many different areas a nurse may work in. Some areas include: obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, emergency room, and many more. Nurses can work in a variety of settings, these can include: hospitals, urgent cares, doctors office, nursing homes and home health.

Ethical knowing or the moral direction of nursing is focused on the nurses’ responsibility of knowing what out to be done and what is good and right (Carper, 1978). Ethical knowing “guides and directs how nurses morally behave in their practices” (Chinn & Maeona, 2011, p. 7). This nurse practices ethics by being a patient advocate and preserving his client's right to choose or refuse care. This patient advocacy will continue as this nurse advances to the role of APN.

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

The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics provides many professional traits that can be incorporated to an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals such as compassion and respect, advocacy, accountability for nursing practice and participation in advancement of the nursing career (Cherry, 2011). Compassion is a very important aspect of the nursing profession. It would be very difficult to be a nurse without being compassionate. Nurses demonstrate compassion and respect daily in their work by actively listening to patients’ and family members’ problems and concerns and by empathy when appropriate. Advocacy is a nursing trait constantly used by the entire interdisciplinary team. Nurses advocate for patients’ right of autonomy for decision making in regards to their care, treatments and procedures. Also, nurses are in the best position to serve as a bridge between the patient and the interdisciplinary team. Accountability is so essential in the nursing profession. Nurses are accountable for their own nursing practices and for our patients.

According to American Nurses Association (ANA), (2010) “the nurse promotes, advocates for and strives to protect the heath, safety and right of the patient” (p. 6). Nursing responsibilities should be acted at the highest standard and must be based on legal and ethical obligations.

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).

Merriam-Webster (2015) defines a nurse practitioner (NP) as ?a nurse who is qualified through advanced training to assume some of the duties and responsibilities formerly assumed only by a physician.? The NP is a direct care provider that provides a plethora of services ranging from primary prevention to disease management. For example, the NP has authority to monitor and alter drug therapies and order diagnostic tests.

The ANA is a professional organization that represents all the nation’s registered nurses. It helps the advancement of the nursing profession by issuing high standards of practice, and promoting the rights of nurses in the profession. The Code of Ethics is developed as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities, along with an appropriate quality in caring with the ethical obligations of the profession. Ethic has always been an essential part of nursing as nursing has a history of concern for the sick, injured. The Code of Ethics for Nurses serves these purposes: it serves

There are nine provisions included in the ANA code of ethics. The provisions can be broken into three categories. The first category is the nurse’s ethical responsibilities to her patient which is provisions one through three. Second is the nurse’s obligation to herself, provisions four through six. The third ethical requirement for nurses is related to their relationship to the nursing profession, community, nation, and world overall. This focus is summarized in provisions seven through nine [ (American Nurses Association, 2013) ].

For my Clinical experience, I was referred to one of community clinics run by nurse practitioners - yes, NPs- in Suffolk County in Long Island by my coworker. It is called “Nightingale Preventative Care.” I am working in the ER and at first, I thought this clinic would be a type of urgent care office which is a similar setting to the ER. I was totally wrong. For the past two weeks, this place has surprised me many ways and I learned about what the community clinic is alike to its neighbors. Patients can be seen by NPs by the appointment. However, it is located inside of K-mart and has many walk-in patients as well. Many patients who come to visit for their check-up have no medical insurance. Every Wednesday, a representative from Fidelis Care insurance company comes and provides information about Medicaid and Medicare service the company has. I really like to sit down with patients and assess about their medical histories and family histories which I cannot do often in the ER. I had a patient who was Hepatitis A Ab, Total positive Abnormal first day I work at the clinic. He didn’t understand what the test result meant and neither did I. I printed out an article from National Library of Medicine and went over with him. Patient’s education in the ER rarely happens from nurses. I felt great to listen what patients tried to lose their weight or quit smoking. I like to continue on developing skills on patient’s education and preventative care measure for patients.

The code of ethics outlines an LPN’s responsibility and interrelations with the public, community, client, professionals, colleagues and one’s self. Furthermore, the code of ethics recognizes the

The Code of Ethics for Nurses was created to be a guide for nurses to perform their duties in a way that is abiding with the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession and quality in nursing care. The Code of Ethics has excellent guidelines for how nurses should behave, however; these parameters are not specific. They do not identify what is right and wrong, leaving nurses having to ultimately make that decision. Ethics in nursing involves individual interpretation based on personal morals and values. Nursing professionals have the ethical accountability to be altruistic, meaning a nurse who cares for patients without self-interest. This results in a nurse functioning as a patient advocate, making decisions that are in the best

As an individual’s ethics will play a large part in their practice, there are specific guidelines and legislation that exist to ensure that nurses, as well as other health professionals, practice in a way that is ethical (Avery, 2013). These laws further exists to attempt to simplify the ethical issues that sometimes present in nursing practice and to attempt to guide one’s actions. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) provides guidance to nurses by providing a number of professional codes and guidelines (Avery, 2013). The NMBA has developed a code of ethics for nurses comprising of eight codes (Avery, 2013). These are as follows; 1) Nurses value quality nursing care for all people; 2) Nurses value respect and kindness for self and others;

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).