Nursing Ethics

“Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, n.d.). The purpose of this paper is to expand my nursing philosophy as I transition into an Advanced Practice Nurse.

Ethical issues have always affected the role of the professional nurse. Efforts to enact this standard may cause conflict in health care settings in which the traditional roles of the nurse are delineated within a bureaucratic structure. Nurses have more direct contact with patients than one can even imagine, which plays a huge role in protecting the patients’ rights, and creating ethical issues for the nurses caring for the various patients they are assigned to. In this paper I will discuss some of the ethical and legal issues that nurses are faced with each and every day.

#1. According to Nursing Leadership and management ATI ethics is defined as an expected behavior of a certain group in relation to what is considered right or wrong. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016) There are six ethical principles they are autonomy which is the ability of the client to make personal decisions, even when those decisions might not be in the client’s own best interest. The second principle is beneficence which is care in the best interest of the client. Third is fidelity which is keeping ones promise to the client about care that was offered. The next principle is justice which is fair treatment in matters related to physical and psychological care and use of resources. Then there is non-maleficence which is the nurse’s obligation to avoid causing harm to the client. The last principle is veracity which is the nurse’s duty to tell the truth. (Henery, McMichael, Johnson, DiStasi, Ball, & Holman, 2016)

Cost of the end of life medical care is too expensive to continue at the rate it is going. The fiscal year 2016 saw 672.1 billion dollars spent on Medicare participants with just 5% using 49% of those monies ("NHE Fact Sheet," n.d., p. 1). The ANA provides a code of ethics that nurses should use to help guide them in clinical practice decision making. There are four fundamental responsibilities for nurses to adhere too they are: promote health, prevent illness, restore health and alleviate suffering. Ethical Principals for nurses are; respect & autonomy, beneficence, justice, veracity, and fidelity ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2012). Attempting to keep ethical responsibilities and principals in mind, while conducting a cost-benefit analysis to determine resource allocation for an aging population and end of life care causes many ethical dilemmas.

It is important to understand that when counselors practices in any setting with clients as they interact on regularly bases with other professional’s workers should always conduct themselves in an ethically and legally appropriate manner (Remley & Herlihy, 2014, p.317). Chapter 12 discuses counselors who are in training for private practice and the type of roles those counselors have with other mental health professionals that are supported in their community.

This case is purely about the legal and ethical implications of nurse T.C and her nursing manager of telemetry unit, nurse F.J. This nurse T.C has worked in a highly stressful environment before but her behavior has only recently deteriorated and become emotional with the occasional outbursts and uncontrollable crying. Her behavior put the legal issue of non-maleficence at risk for her patients as it would cause emotional stress on them. However, the legal issue that really matters is her case is that of defamation of her character as well as disclosure of her private and confidential mental state information by F.J to other nurse managers not in the unit she worked and to even the subordinates.

Florence Nightingale, or as soldiers on the battlefield would call her the “Lady with the Lamp”, was an inspirational women of the nineteenth century that had many aspirations and dreams concerning the care of others. Achieving these dreams by “facilitating the reparative processes of the body by manipulating the patient’s environment” (Potter & Perry 2009, p. 45); Nightingale laid the foundations of modern nursing and gave the country and many others a system that has stood the test and remains timeless. In this, Florence has become one of the most widely known nursing theorist to this day.

Oftentimes, I am asked the question of why I am a nurse, and truth be told, sometimes I don’t know the answer why I want to be a nurse. All I really know is that I have wanted to help those in need since I was a little girl. Time has really flown, I‘ve been a professional nurse for almost 26 years. When we discuss the topic of making ethical decisions today, I look to the very beginning of my nursing career. I was very happy to see my pediatric patients had been discharged home from their illness (e.g. fever, pneumonia, diarrhea, and infection disease etc) after we took good care of them. One day, the parents of a patient who was 2 year old boy with acute kidney

I chose the profession of nursing due to my ever present desire to help others. As a child, my family supported and nurtured my natural tendency to want to support and care for others. Nursing has given me the opportunity to truly make a difference in someone’s life. My patient’s successful journey to better health is due in part to the nursing care, education, and service I provided. I believe one of the most important pieces of successful nursing care is providing the patient and family the tools needed to maintain their optimal level of health. To give someone the tools to help themselves is not only important, it is also one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. The purpose of this paper is to explore my personal nursing philosophy,

Autonomy is the concept of making a rational decision that is informed and un-coerced. Respect for autonomy is whereby the patient is allowed to act in any way they would like. It means that the patient has the capacity to act in their own intention with their own understanding and without the control of any influences that would prevent them from taking a voluntary and free action ADDIN EN.CITE Hickman20081382(Hickman, Cartwright, & Young, 2008)1382138217Hickman, Susan E.Cartwright, Juliana C.Young, Heather M.Administrators' Perspectives on Ethical Issues in Long-Term Care ResearchJournal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: An International JournalJournal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: An International Journal69-78312008University of California Press15562646http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jer.2008.3.1.69( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_5" o "Hickman, 2008 #1382" Hickman, Cartwright, & Young, 2008). Its corresponding virtue is that of being respectful ADDIN EN.CITE Beauchamp20091384(Beauchamp & Childress, 2009)138413846Beauchamp, T.L.Childress, J.F.Principles of Biomedical Ethics2009New York, NYOxford University Press9780195143317http://books.google.com/books?id=_14H7MOw1o4C( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o "Beauchamp, 2009 #1384" Beauchamp & Childress, 2009).

The aim of this essay is to discuss an ethical issue encountered whilst on placement. The discussion will focus on the influence of the key ethics theories of deontology and utilitarianism, ethics principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice on decision-making in practice. It will consider the patients’ and staffs’ values and beliefs, legislation and professional practice. Confidentiality will be respected by using a pseudonym, Carol, in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] (2008) guidelines on confidentiality.

Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Chio Thung Arizona State University  Ethical, Bioethical, and Legal Issues in Nursing Ethical, bioethical, and legal issues are all concerns that affect professional nursing practice. Nurses should be aware about why and how these issues affect their profession. A case scenario that questions these boundaries is a homeless person without any health care insurance being provided substandard care by a medical team (Maville & Huerta, 2008). There are many components that affect nursing such as ethical principles, bioethical dilemmas, moral values, and statutes, which I will discuss how they would influence my actions in this case scenario.

Ethical and legal dilemmas are issues that nurses face in their professional careers. Nurses are accountable for safe and appropriate administration of medication. With the growth in malpractice lawsuits it is important that nurses take certain precautions to limit the risk of lawsuits. “Nurses can limit the risk of liability through maintaining open communication with patients, expertise in practice, attention to details, and autonomy. (Burkhart &Nathanial, 2013).

An ethical problem is not a routine decision with a predictable outcome. It is the opposite. Ethical problems may include differences in opinion, power struggles, and even intuition (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014). The ethical problem from the case study is the struggle the nurse, Joanna, has with her peers to determine the cause of abdominal pain in her patient and the deadly outcome of her intuition. The dilemma Joanna faced was a frequent COPD patient, Mrs. Kelly, who began to complain of abdominal pain.

Nurses are faced with many ethical and legal issues, such as protecting and maintaining the patient privacy and confidentiality. “A dilemma can arise when confidential information is requested by family members or friends of the patient” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). As nurses during our pinning ceremony we took the “the Nightingale Pledge promised to do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affair” (McGowan, 2012, p. 61). Protecting and maintaining patient confidentiality is a serious matter and you can be fined and faced with federal charges, if you are found guilty.