Miss Evers Boys Summary

For the past fifteen years, Americans have ranked nurses as the highest trusted profession (Gallup Poll News, 2016). If Americans were asked in 1972 when the Tuskegee Study was exposed it is possible that nurses would have been ranked as one of the least trusted professions. Healthcare professionals are expected to abide by basic ethical principles; respect of persons, beneficence, and justice (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). We will discuss an event where research and clinical practice occurred in disregard to the basic principles.

In the movie Miss Evers’ Boys, the basic ethical principles were disregarded. The study participants were not allowed justice because the researchers did not disclose the facts of the study. The government officials, Dr. Douglas and Dr. Brodus the lead research doctors, and Miss Evers the nurse were aware of the purpose of the study and that no treatment would be initiated for months or even a year. When they chose not to disclose this information to the participants they violated fidelity, disregarded integrity and did not uphold beneficence for the participants (Sargent, 1997). As the study progressed, they were continually denied the funding to purchase Penicillin. When Penicillin arrived at the clinic the doctors decided that this would interfere with the outcome of the

Federal regulations require research that involves human subjects to be presented to an institutional review board (Zaccagnini & White, 2017). The review board decides if the research is appropriate and that the researchers are qualified to pursue the study (Zaccagnini & White, 2017). Nurses are required to provide protection for human subjects when performing research (American Nurses Association, 2017). This protection secures the basic principles of respect of persons, beneficence, and