Nursing Philosophy and Code of Ethics Essay

Studies have shown that many factors have been contributing to influence patient’s care in an ethical manner. What factors could affects one decision for their medical care? Does it also included the nurse’s individual views or should consider their moral obligations? But what is ethics really is? Based on the book Nursing Ethics by Butts & Rich, “Ethics is a systematic approach to understand, analyze, and distinguish matters of right and wrong, good and bad, and admirable and deplorable as they relate to the well-being”. Ethics should follow the current AMA guidelines.

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

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.

“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.” Nursing is more than just doing assessments and giving medications; it is going beyond that to know what is right or wrong, what can and cannot be done, and what is considered harming the patients rather than doing them good. In nursing, there is a fine line between what is considered to be negligence and beneficence. According to Marquis (2017), “Ethics is the systemic study of what a person’s conduct and actions should be with regard to self, others human beings, and the environment (pg. 83), on the other hand, it does not necessarily mean that their

Deontology is an ethical theory concerned with duties and rights. The founder of deontological ethics was a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Kant’s deontological perspective implies people are sensitive to moral duties that require or prohibit certain behaviors, irrespective of the consequences (Tanner, Medin, & Iliev, 2008). The main focus of deontology is duty: deontology is derived from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. A duty is morally mandated action, for instance, the duty never to lie and always to keep your word. Based on Kant, even when individuals do not want to act on duty they are ethically obligated to do so (Rich, 2008).

This concept is taken from module 1 of block 6 entitled “Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice”.

A definition of a Philosophy is “when someone contemplates, or wonders, about something that serves as the blueprints or guides that incorporates each individual’s value and belief system.” (Chitty & Black, 2007, p. 318) Personal Philosophy of Nursing is the core values and beliefs that a nurse upholds when taking care of another human being. It is the belief that each individual no matter what disease, race, or economic status they have will get treated with the highest regards to compassion, integrity, and respect that they deserve.

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

Today there are many nursing theorists who have developed their own nursing philosophies that help nurses shape their personal nursing philosophy. Rosemarie Rizzo Parse is a nursing theorist that captures some of the essentials of nursing philosophy and created the Human Becoming Theory of Nursing. Parse’s Theory of nursing causes one to think differently about the client, health, environment and nursing. This theorist has caught my attention because it focused on many of the beliefs and values that I identify with. My personal values include: compassion, integrity, professionalism and commitment.

Nurses support and enable individuals, families and groups to maintain, restore or improve their health status. Nurse also care for and comfort when deterioration of health has become irreversible. A traditional ideal of nursing is caring and nurturing of human beings regardless of race, religion, status, age, gender, diagnosis, or any other grounds.

Code of Ethics in nursing it is important to make sure the staff and patients are being respected and treated with dignity. The study of ethics has lead to basic concept such as justice and fidelity, autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence. It is very important to understand these concepts, because they assist the nurse with making decisions during difficult situations (ANA, 2001, p 6).

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 is evident from the definition, ethics is largely subjective and will be influenced by a number of internal and external factors such as attitudes, beliefs, family upbringing, cultural and ethnic background and work environment to name but a few of the many (Freegard et al., 2013). It is important for a nurse to be aware of what ethical practice is and to be aware of the factors that can impact this in order to better understand their ethical point of view as well as the ethical point of view of others, to better practice in a manner that is ethical and right.

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).