Personal Reflection: An Example Of Ethical Dilemmas In Nursing Practice

Nurses confront numerous dilemmas throughout their professional lives. The different types of dilemmas include, but are not limited to, ethical, moral, and legal dilemmas. These are the three most common dilemmas in nursing. A dilemma can be defined in many different ways. But all dilemmas are situations in which you have to make a difficult choice. Chiaranai (2011) states that an “ethical dilemma is a circumstance that arises from fundamental conflicts between ethical beliefs, duties, principles and theories” (p. 250). Therefore, an ethical dilemma forces the nurse to address thought on what is right and what the harm might be to the patient.

A philosophy of an organization helps differentiate themselves from their competitors and set a foundation for future success. It also helps shape an organization by presenting the goals they want to accomplish with specific activities. To improve this, many organizations understand the important of sharing values and goals and realize employee recognition. This helps staff from moving forward toward success of the organizations. Chapter 4 introduces “Codes of Ethics in Health Services.” Code of ethics is a guideline for healthcare professionals to accomplish and serve as a member of a society. Similar to other professions, managers have their own code of ethics in maintaining their duties and responsibilities. They also use the codes for ethical decision-making in dealing with ethical issues. Chapter 5 deals with “Organizational Responses to Ethical Issues.” It provides assistance for managers and organizations in their decision making. It is manager’s duty to figure out the problem and resolve it (Darr, 2011,

Humans often struggle to find the right answers in life. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is not always easy and one can be overwhelmed with the problems and ethical issues surrounding them. As a future healthcare professional, it is imperative to understand the role that ethics plays in nursing and how ethical dilemmas impact individuals. There are countless complex ethical issues that confront nurses during their careers and it is crucial they understand where their own values and beliefs lie. Euthanasia, DNR’s, end of life care, privacy, stem cell research and restraints are all great examples of some common ethical issues. “While there are many challenges facing nurses in the work environment (nursing short-age, mandated

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.

There are many different careers which entail much more than just a particular degree from some type of 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 along with the level/employee behavior usually being currently attainable, which means 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.

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.

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).

According to (Cheon, Coyle, Wiegand & Welsh, 2015), nurses encounter ethical dilemmas in their clinical practice especially those associated with palliative and end-of-life care. Cheon, et al. (2015) survey on Ethical issues experienced by hospice and palliative care nurses identifies the most common ethical dilemmas affecting nurses as: inadequate communication, providing futile care, withdrawal/withhold of life prolonging therapies, and palliative pain management.

The ethical issues experienced by nurses during their daily activities have received a limited amount of attention. Despite this, ethical problems and dilemmas are a part of nursing practices all over the world. Research indicates that 43% of nurses encounter ethical issues on a daily basis while 36% face the same problem on a weekly basis (Ulrich et.al. 2010). At the same time, nurses are required to uphold certain moral values, responsibilities and duties that are crucial to the nursing profession (Ulrich et.al. 2010). As a result, nurses face numerous ethical challenges. Furthermore, nurses encounter numerous factors that undermine their ability to practice in an ethical manner. When faced with ethical

Nurses face many ethical issues every day. Making ethical decisions is challenging for nurses because the decisions can impact not only patient but also nurses. In Hickox’s case, she was subjected to restrictions. The ethical

Significantly, “Consideration of ethical issues is an essential component of providing care within the therapeutic nurse-client relationship. Nurses encounter ethical conflict, uncertainty and distress in their everyday practice.” (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009, p. 3)

The Code of Ethics furnishes a definitive model of conduct. The standard of conduct is entrenched in associations, affiliations, confidentiality, and commitment with health care professionals. The Code of Ethics for healthcare quality professionals is dedicated to routine enhancement and preserving integrity by identifying individual accountability and ethical obligation to patients, medical providers, employees, health care organizations, and the community (Oddo, 2011). Ethics are not voluntary in the health care field. They are a vital and central part of medicine. Ethical codes form and assemble moral atmosphere and allotting the ethical accountability and

Ethical Codes are in use today by many organizations to clearly establish their values and provide a procedure if a code violation occurs. Medical ethics began as a professional code for physicians and has now expanded and includes a variety of health care professions and health care organizations. The growth of medical knowledge and technology have grown so have the concerns that ethical standards and issues facing our society today may be compromised or not appropriately addressed (Littleton et al., 2010).

As well as medical caregivers, nurses must confront some of the most serious human dilemmas all individuals muse over, such as death and dying. Nurses often deal with extreme ethical conundrums on a daily basis. These concerns include end-of-life issues, caring for an elderly or disabled relative, the proper way to raise a child, and the degree to which a person with a mental or physical impairment has autonomy over his or her body.