Evolvement Of Nursing Ethics: The Nursing Code Of Ethics

The term nursing ethics means that the nurse has an obligation judge what is right and wrong in her or his duties as guided by the profession or the moral principles that govern the profession and as prescribed by the professional body. Nursing ethics initially encompassed virtues that were desired in a nurse. At the time, these virtues included physician loyalty, commitment to high moral character and obedience. Evolvement of nursing profession gradually made nurses embrace patients’ advocacy. As patient advocates, nurses work as part of an interdisciplinary team to provide patient care. Nursing ethics have kept pace with the advancement of the nursing profession to include a patient-centered focus, rather than a physician-centered focus.

The nursing code of ethics is a formal statement of the ideals and values of nursing and ethical principles that serve as standards for nurses‟ actions. Jurisprudence is the scientific study of law and law is defined as those rules made by humans, which regulate social conduct in a formally prescribed and legally binding manner. Nursing ethics and law are very important because they are concerned with the provision of services that have an impact on human health and life which can cause dilemma during practice and if not handled adequately can lead to negative impact on the client and all the people concerned with the care the client. Therefore Standards must be set to guide the conduct of the nurse in making proper and adequate decisions for the safety and protection of the client, by so doing the nurse protects herself or himself from litigation (Burke, K. 2000).
Berman, A. J and Burke, K. (2000), looked at nursing ethics as an integral part of nursing, that has t has to do with moral principles and values that guide nurses to make decisions and choices that lead to quality and effective client care. In providing nursing care, nurses find themselves in situations where sensitive decisions are made about the best way to treat illness and solve healthcare problems. Values influence decisions and actions and value clarification promote quality decisions by fostering awareness,

For example, a client with failing eyesight will probably place a high value on the ability to see, and this helps the nurse choose and plan on the type of care it is necessary for the nurse to clarify all the information that is unclear, conflicting and all he values that are likely to cause conflict or are detrimental to the health of the patient alongside with desired intervention. It is therefore important that values are clarified so that decisions that are made will be based on clear values and this is in the best interest of the client, the nurse, and the institution (Kozier, B. et al., 2015).
Nurses are confronted by disturbing client care situations that require them to make ethical decisions. To be effective in making these decisions, they need to think, reason and make right choices using principles and moral theories. Moral theories and principles help nurses to develop explanations for their decisions and actions and in discussing problem situations with others. This unit examines the concept of morality, the processes of moral development, different moral frameworks and the philosophical concepts in moral