Ethical Principles In Nursing

During one of my clinical sessions, the patient that I was responsible for handed me a needle that had been left in her bed before I was about to administer medication. I immediately took the needle and put it in the sharps container. I told my professor about the situation. The teacher explained the importance of assessing the patient and observing the surroundings after every encounter. The professor stated that he will mention the incident to the nurse assigned to my patient. Along with the needle in the bed incident, the nurse avoided encounters with the patient. When the patient asked me to get the nurse for her, the nurse would tell me to tell her that she was busy and that she would come later. I didn’t personally see the nurse attend to the patient the whole time I was in the hospital. At the end of the day, the same incident where a needle was found on a patient’s bed occurred with another student.

Since I reported the situation to my professor and he stated that he will report it to the nurse, the nurse will know that she needs to be more careful when administering medication and to be more observant of a patient’s surroundings. I know that the situation could've been worse. The patient

The nurse was not treating the patient with justice. The nurse was shifting her care towards the other patients and rarely attending to my assigned patient. Another principle, beneficence, was ignored. Leaving the needle in the patient’s bed after administering the medication doesn’t benefit the patient but causes harm. The nurse did not value the patient’s autonomy. The patient can make her own decisions as to how to care for her child. It is also the patient’s decision to seek medical care when she feels as if she needs it. It is also the patient’s decision to take her medications or not. The nurse should assess the reason why the patient didn’t want to take her