Nursing Ethical Issues

Ethics plays a very important role in the healthcare setting, especially when minors are involved. There are several factors and outliers that affect the decision making process as well as the quality of patient care. A major dilemma nurses face is confidentially, especially when parents or guardians have certain legal rights over the minors that limit their choices. All patients whether they are minors should still be able to expect confidentiality. The argument is whether or not teens are able to make these difficult medical decisions alone and whether they understand what’s going on, the procedure process, and all the risks and consequences involved. The ethical dilemmas that many nurses face with teen pregnancies are confidentiality, informed consent, and competence. Nurses face whether or not to

Describe the ethical dilemma that the nurse is facing? Please be specific. What makes it an ethical dilemma?

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 responsible for being ethical, competent, safe, and stay consistent with local, state, and federal laws. They must have an understanding of how to apply these principles when providing care to a client, they are not only responsible for understanding but also protecting client’s rights. Clients who are in a mental health setting have legal rights and they are guaranteed the same rights as any other person. These rights include, the right to humane treatment and care, the right to vote, the rights related to granting, forfeiture, or denial of a driver’s license, the right to press legal charges against another person, they have the right to refuse treatment, a right to confidentiality,

In this case, the nurse who was supervising the hospital used her best judgment in maintaining the care for the ICU. All hospitals are licensed to provide appropriate nursing and medical care to a specific number of patients, with the understanding that a hospital will only admit those patients it has the resources, staff, equipment, and facilities needed to deliver said care. This license also directs hospitals and nursing staff to engage in practices which are unmistakably dangerous, irresponsible and unethical, and in many ways, are in direct violation of state and federal laws, HIPAA and JCAHO requirements, and the Department’s own regulations. Closing the unit by Dr. Bestknabe is not a solution; rather, it creates more

An ethical situation that I was part of was when I was working as a CNA. It was a normal busy afternoon; I was assisting with feeding, visiting with residents, bring residents to the restroom; when on resident came up to me and asked if he could have his Tylenol because he had pain. I told the resident that I would let their nurse know. When I notified his nurse of this resident’s request, the nurse responded by complaining about this individual. The nurse claimed this resident always wanted medication and always asked pointless questions that are a waste of the nurse’s time. I was in complete utter shock the way the nurse responded to me notifying her of the resident’s request. I responded by kindly suggesting to the nurse that it’s our

All health care professionals have ethical dilemmas from time to time and health care administrators have a moral duty to question and address issues in the organization. A Johns Hopkins magazine journal titled, Nursing is hard. Unaddressed Ethical Issues make it even harder is a detailed case study/ current event of nurses struggling in their profession. Nurses have a tough and rewarding job to treat, medicate, educate, and deal with emotional stress for the patients. This type of ethical issue nurses are facing range from not speaking up from short-handedness that affects quality of care to not having enough supply of blood and organ donations. Additionally, when it comes to end-of-life of adults and infants there are standard procedures of handling and communicating to families about it. Nurses are ultimately faced with a difficult dilemma of knowing the moral decision and not carrying out the decision or simply

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

Nursing leaders are burdened with ethical responsibilities for their nursing staff, patients, their organization and their profession ( Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2015). This is because nursing leaders must cope with the realities of limited resources and have to make difficult choices that prioritize resource needs into those that are fulfilled immediately, those that are partially fulfilled, and those that are either differed or rejected (Harlew, 2013; Marquis & Huston, 2014). In addition, leadership decisions are strongly influenced and determined by social, political and economic factors (Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2015). As a result, the debate on the healthcare resources allocation for a rationing environment often takes on an ethical perspective.

Nurses face the challenge of juggling both ethical and legal obligations when it comes to patients. To bring to the fore, nurses are legal mandated reporters for adult protection according to Minnesota Statute Section 626.557 (MNDHS, 2016b). Thus, having to report on any person over the age of 18 who is considered vulnerable or has been maltreated (MNDHS, 2016b). Legally, as a nurse, Mrs. Jones fits the criteria to be reported as a vulnerable adult; receiving home care services and having physical disorders, such as the ulcer, that make it difficult for her to care for herself (MNDHS, 2016b). Under provision three of the ANA code of code ethics, as nurses the priority is to advocate for our patients to protect their health and safety (ANA, 2015). Although Mrs. Jones is vulnerable in her situation, following provision three, she is also self-neglecting; threatening her health and safety due to barriers of living alone and health

Ethics play a major role in the nursing profession on a daily bases. In the case study, the ethical principles involved were beneficence, veracity, confidentiality, and vulnerability. Beneficence is defined as doing good for a patient by removing or preventing harm. The child will be removed from the abusive situation, and she will no longer be susceptible to physical or sexual abuse (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014). Veracity principle is when the nurse tells the truth. In this situation, the nurse is obligated to report the abuse to the appropriate organization. This ensures open communication and respect between both parties. Confidentiality principle is defined as the patient’s information about medical and personal issues will be secured

Nurses are responsible for their clinical function, and their main responsibility is to take care of the clients and patients who deserve appropriate and safe care. As nurses we acting based on values, and the effect of these values is a core part of humanistic nursing care. One of all ethical principles that fit my personal belief system is beneficence, as an act of mercy, charity and, doing well to others, including moral obligation. In other words treat people the same way that you want to be treated, Westrick (2014). Beneficence strives for the best care or promoting good, and refrain from doing anything that would cause harm. Justice is another ethical principle that fit my personal belief, means giving each person or group what he/she

As a nurse, you may face challenges that impact your ability to provide safe, appropriate and ethical care to clients. In these situations, nurses use professional judgment, the ethical decision provides an opportunity for you to develop your own personalized program for continuing competence. Professional Practice course program promotes ongoing safe, ethical and competent practice, leadership, diversity and offers nurses opportunities to pursue and achieve professional growth throughout their careers. Professional Practice will guide the nursing student to recognize and respect the diversity of other health care roles, responsibilities, and competencies. “Practical Nurses must understand uphold and promote the ethical standards of the nursing

Nurses often feel uncomfortable in addressing the ethical issues they encounter in patient care. Nurses around the world regardless of their area of practice, age and maturity level have long struggled with ethical challenges in patient care and it continues to happen every

Reflection paper: Who is ethically right? The charge nurse trying to ensure a high acuity patient has appropriate nursing care or you the nurse? The safety of nurses from hospital-induced injuries and illnesses is vital to nurses themselves as well as to the patients they are taking care of. The presence of healthy and well-rested nurses is critical to providing continuous monitoring, empathic patient care, and vigorous advocacy.