Upon entering the hospital setting, a nurse must ruminate on his or her three obligations – client, peer, and society. While each of these three facets obtains a basis in the ANA Cold of Ethics, they retain diverse levels, types, and severity of obligations. In this case study, Sue, a staff nurse at Holy Christ Hospital, discovers herself in a dilemma between her obligations to a patient and her obligations to a colleague. Jessica, a colleague, miscalculated the insulin dosage of a patient and failed to check on their recovery, preceding the patient to become hypoglycemic. Sue remains conflicted on whether she should report the incident to the Doctor, or preserve her moral fidelity to her friend, as her friend requested that she does not …show more content…
This moral obligation to Jessica focuses on ethical standards and alliance. Sue senses a moral obligation to uphold and protect, her friend, despite the actions she procured. All individuals feel obligated to reinforce friends and family, in spite of the mistakes they generate. Sue does not possess a legal obligation to Jessica; Sue stands as a colleague, not a patient. It is not her duty to keep her colleague informed and healthy, as that is her duty to the patient. While Sue’s obligations to the patient and her colleague rest dissimilar, they do contain one commonality – morals and values. As a nurse, we attain a definite set of morals of values that entices us towards the profession, such as commitment, respect, and trust. We feel compelled to nurture and care for those around us, even though every individual preserves an undesirable habit. If the nurse does not inform the Doctor, she is putting her colleague above a patient’s right to fidelity; it rests most imperative to maintain fidelity with the patient, than with a colleague. By informing the Doctor, Sue could inhibit this problem from reoccurring in the future, as lessons on precise insulin measurements, or an increase in staff number, could emerge. B. Personal friendships should never affect a nurse’s judgment about reporting an honest mistake of another nurse. Upon entering the medical setting, personal
Professional and ethical concerns are quite challenging and places nurses at an awkward position (Mendes & Ventura,2016). However, it is clear that the primary obligation
In the field of nursing, the ANA Code of Ethics is designed to provide specific bylaws that will influence the practices of health care professionals inside the industry. However, there are different advocacy campaigns that will have an impact on how it is interpreted and applied. In the case of advocacy for population health, these issues mean that there could be moral dilemmas faced in the process (most notably: lifestyle choices and their impact on the individual). (Butts, 2012)
The American Nurses Association (ANA) has the Code of Ethics which holds Nurses to the codes or provisions of these documents. I summarized Provision 1 of the ANA 's Code of Ethics. I give a scenario where this provision is broken by the nursing staff and consequences of doing so. Provision 1: Provision 1 reads as follows “The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems” (American Nurses Association 2001). Provision 1 is divided into five subdivisions. Provision 1.1 is titled “Respect for human dignity"(ANA 2001). The nurse always needs to place value on their patient as a unique individual. Provision 1.2 is titled “Relationships to patients” (ANA 2001). As a nurse you need to leave all prejudice, personal beliefs, and convictions out of the care of your patient. The patient’s self-worth and value is not defined by their religious choice, culture, lifestyle, hygiene, financial status, sex, and race. The nurse needs to form or follow an individual treatment plan that fits your patient’s personal preferences, religious beliefs, and requests. Provision 1.3 reads as follows “The nature of health problems” (ANA 2001). A nurse is not to judge or look down upon a patient by their "The disease, disability, or functional status “(ANA 2001).The nurse needs
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).
I learned that as a nurse it is my duty to always consider my own well being, along with my patient’s. I must keep a high moral character both in the workplace and in my personal life. I must continue to educate myself and keep myself up to date with all the latest nursing practices and research. I must subject myself to peer review and evaluation. I must never let my personal feelings about a patient’s lifestyle affect my care for them. When met with a tough choice that places me in an ethical crisis I must keep a good head on my shoulders and always have my patient’s best interests in mind. If I feel that a situation at work is in direct conflict with my personal values or my oath to be an ethical nurse I must go through the proper channels to work through the problem.
Nurses are faced with making difficult decisions for theirs patients on a daily occurrence. “The STOP model helps decision makers by reminding them to consider all elements and make a best rational choice to fit the situation.” (Godfrey & Crigger, 2012, p. 35) When faced with a daunting choice a nurse can use the STOP Model to help them decipher what exactly to do without becoming overwhelmed. Looking at the case study presented to us this is how I would analyze the situation using the STOP Model:
I enjoyed reading your post. The ASCA and AMHCA has some similarities. In the AMHCA Code of Ethics (2015), that counselors should look at his or her own beliefs and values and understand that their views can impact the client. AMHCA also has their own peer review journal that provides information about research, and theories that relates to mental health counseling. I agree that advocacy is important because it brings awareness and it also important because you have someone that will speak up for the people that do not have a voice for example, children may not voice how they are feeling or believe that if they do voice their feelings, someone will not believe
The ANA has a published Code of Ethics for our profession, Nursing. What purpose does such an ethical code serve?
As a professional health care worker, the implication confidentiality breach regarding ethical dilemmas are significant to nurse and patient. The information disclosed can cause problems on a personal and professional level. Breach of confidentiality occurs when the heath care work discloses the patient 's medical or personal information without the patient 's informed written or verbal consent. Confidentiality is needed between the nurse and the patient to maintain a good open and honest relationship between both parties. There are several ethical implications regarding breach of confidentiality, for example,
After reading the ANA code of ethics there are various aspects that can relate back to nursing informatics. However, the main sections I would like to discuss would be; provisions two, three, seven, eight and nine.
I chose to analyze provision three contained in the American Association Code of Ethics. Provision three explores a nurses daily duty as it relates to patient rights as well as safety and patient privacy. In addition to other healthcare related responsibilities a nurse is effectively, a valuable patient advocate who must work to ensure that patients are treated fairly and competently, not only from the nursing staff, but all caregivers. (American Nurses Association). If a situation concerning incompetent care from other healthcare providers should arise, the nurse must assess issue on behalf of the patient and initiate action to have the issue corrected.
In order for Steve to make an ethical decisions he has to consider his values and principles. One of the major values Steve must consider is his value of respect for life. Due to the fact that Debra is pregnant, Steve is actually treating two patients and two lives. While making the decision as to whether or not to send Debra to the perinatologist, Steve must think about if he doesn’t how it will affect both Debra and the baby. Steve must also consider the double effect as one of the principles. The double effect states, “sometimes it is permissible to cause a harm as a side effect of bringing about a good result” (McIntyre, 2004). In Steve's case with Debra, this could work either way. Steve could either refer Debra to the perinatologist
The main ethical issues that presented in the case scenario is maintaining privacy and confidentiality. “Privacy is limited access to a person, the person’s body, conversations, bodily functions or objects immediately associated with the person” (CNO, 2009, p. 7). Nurses recognize the importance
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 subject to a plethora of legal, ethical, and professional duties which can be very challenging on a day to day basis. Some of these duties include respecting a patient 's confidentiality and autonomy, and to recognize the duty of care that is owed to all patients. As nurses our duties are always professional; however there are legal implications if these duties are breached. We also must consider when it is okay as nurses to breach these duties and therefore ethical issues arise. As nurses one of our main priorities is to advocate for our patients, without our own personal feelings on the matter taking over.