Nursing Case Analysis

Analyzing an Ethical Decision

Health care providers, especially nurses, encounter circumstances in which they are expected to simultaneously act in the best interest of patients, families, other colleagues, and the health care organization (Mennella, 2015). For Advanced nurse practitioners (APRNs) the intricacy of the issues intensifies because nurses are considered as moral agents. Hence, APRNs are expected to be leaders in identifying and resolving moral problems, as well as creating conducive ethical practice environments, and promoting social justice in the health care systems (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014). As defined by Hamric and colleagues (2014), “An ethical or moral dilemma occurs when an obligation requires an individual to adopt two or more alternative actions, but the persons cannot carry out all the required options.” The purpose of this paper is to discuss the moral or ethical issues APRNs are faced with in their clinical practices while analyzing the ethical issue and comparing it to the State

Because the pain described in the case is one that has been witnessed by the nurses that has directly taken care of the patient and performing the daily dressing changes. The dressing changes had always been sources of excruciating pain for the patient in her early stages of her diseases process when she was able to show her pain cues. The nurses felt the moral distress for not providing relieve of pain during the patient dressing change. The role of the nurse according to American Nurses Association code of ethics Provision 3 “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient” (ANA, 2015). The duty of the nurse is to take action to protect patients and to ensure that the impaired individual receives proper assistance