The Ethical Principles Of Impaired Nurses

between two sets of human values, both of which are judged to be “good” but neither of

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.

Nurses rely on personal knowledge and their professional skills to provide ethical care (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). In everyday practice, nurses must balance the needs of their patients against those of the organization, society and themselves. They strive to deliver the highest level of care for patients, but adjusting for limited organizational and personal resources often requires difficult decisions. This paper explores the following scenario suggested by Maville and Huerta: “You are a nurse providing home care to a mother, and you suspect child abuse after observing the mother’s reaction to her child” (as cited by Arizona State University, 2014). When faced with a moral dilemma, a competent nurse incorporates ethical, bioethical and legal considerations. In the proposed story, incorporating the nursing ethics of advocacy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and collaboration will guide the nurse towards an appropriate and legal course of action.

The responsibility of regulating nursing practice that ensures public safety, health and welfare and accountability to the public for proper governance falls on the State Boards of Nursing (BONs). Substance abuse is the most common disease that affects healthcare workers (Darbro, 2009). The disease of substance abuse disorder is preventable (Darbro, 2009). The intent of this paper is to discuss the ethical issues of nurses with substance abuse disorder, stigma of addiction, challenges that nurses with substance abuse problems face to include acceptance of the disease, treatment, rehabilitation and monitoring, the incidence of addiction among nurses, how to recognize an impaired colleague, nurses’ attitudes about addiction within the profession and the ethical issues that the nurse, employer and society face when dealing with a nurse who is an addict. It was in the 1980s that professional nursing organizations recommended alternative to discipline (ATD) programs to help rehabilitate nurses (Sigma Theta Tau, 2014). In the past 20 years 46 states have gone with this approach as opposed to traditional discipline (Trussman, 2003). In most cases, these ATD programs provide nurses with intense monitoring for 5 years to aid in their recovery so they may return to work and provide safe patient care to the

I have decided to discuss ethics in Learning Disability Nursing. I selected this topic as I sought after to understand and grow my knowledge in this area. Additionally, I desired to distinguish how the values of ethics have altered towards patients with learning disabilities. Including how they compare to patients without learning disabilities.

In regard to this case study, several ethical perspectives by both the patient and the nurse need to be considered. First of all, when it comes to substance abuse the patient would most likely take the perspective that the nurse violated the ethical codes of fidelity, beneficence, and non-malfeasance. The patient has the right to receive proper treatment and when a nurse abuses substances,

#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)

According to the American Nurses Association, an impaired nurse is unable to meet the requirements of the code of ethics and standards of practice of the profession. This nurse has cognitive, interpersonal or psychomotor skills affected by psychiatric illness and/or drug or alcohol abuse of addiction (American Nurses Association, 2010). Not only do these nurses create a potential threat to their clients, but they have also neglected to care for themselves.

In clinical setting, nurses face ethical dilemmas everyday. There is no perfect answer to ethical dilemmas in clinical area. It is important to identify ethics related situation, work as a team to address these problems and provide support for patient and families. Dealing with dilemmas is not just a nursing issue. But the role and function of nurses could affect whole team member and their patients too. In the given scenario, two different views of parents for the sick child create dilemmas. Mother (biological parent) insists that no medical treatment for religious reasons but in the other hand father (biological parents) insist for medical treatment and consultation. This paper discusses the ethical dilemma of given scenario and the solution by using Uustal’s ethical decision making.

This hypothetical situation illustrates a common problem faced by nurses, as the roles we serve can be multifaceted and demanding. It is often tempting to cut corners, especially if we feel there will be no actual harm done. This, however, does not justify professional misconduct nor allow us to expand our practice beyond our designated scope. Not only do the Nursing Practice Acts define our role as nurses, they also designate what nurses may not do. The purpose of the Nurse Practice Acts is to protect the patient from harm. The Nurse Practice Acts state that the scope of nursing does not include acts of medical diagnosis or the prescription of therapeutic or corrective measures as stated in section 301.002. Thus, by signing prescriptions

What one person may say regarding the issue may vary from the next. When discussing the topic of substance abuse among nurses the severity of the action might differ when mentioning the problem to nurse manager or charge nurse. Views on substance abuse may also change when discussing the topic with a fellow nurses as well as patients. The roles of the nurse managers and charge nurses are to insure competence as well as the functionality of the nurses that are under their supervision. In looking at this topic from the perspective of a nurse manager or a charge nurse it may seem like the nurses is putting both their patients and the hospital at risk so their first action may be to address the problem.” The impact of workplace substance abuse includes increased workplace accidents and injuries and increased use of health benefits, workers compensation, and disability claims” (Epstein et. al., 2010, p. 515). There may be an underlying reason to why this nurse has chosen to go down this destructive path and it may also be the nurse manager or charge duty to address this problem. Substance abusing nurses are hazardous to have in the work place and removed from the floor and sending that the nurse to get some needed help may be the duty of that charge nurse or nurse manager, because the nurse may not be willing to listen to fellow floor nurses. From the perspective of fellow nurses, they may not want

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.

The role of ethics in organizational behavior is the underlying factor to the success and longevity of any organization. A set of rules and guidelines focusing on promoting safety, trust, and responsible practice within the workplace must be established internally. Organizations develop code of ethics that center upon the promotion of good. Ethics are vital in developing trusting relationships between employees and administration within.

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.

The ethical dilemma is a situation by which it’s difficult to determine whether a situation is can be handled without disappointing both sides. Therefore, an ethical dilemma exists when the right thing to do is clear or when members of the healthcare team cannot agree on the right thing to do. Ethical dilemmas require negotiation of different points of view (potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall 2011pg 78).