Nurses are face with numerous ethical dilemmas each day and if theses ethical situation are not handled in a professional and ethical manner there can be severe consequences for both the nurse and the patient. When nurses are face with theses ethical dilemmas, they have a decision to make. Therefore, what does the nurse do when decision-making involves ethical dilemmas? So, has a nursing student, I have chosen to put myself in the role of a health care provider such as a nurse. It was my first day of clinical rotation and the client that I was assigned to, was due for a bath. I was not comfortable giving the patient a bath a lone, so I ask for assistance from one of my colleagues. The client was a male who was shy and soft spoken. While undressing the client, I overheard a patient and her family arguing. She wants to refuses life support and the family says they want everything done. She is competent individual, who as cancer breast and had gone through many round of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and yet the cancer is still spreading. She is experiencing side effect from the treatment, like vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness and fatigue. The nurse who was in the room with the client and her family, just said he will give them some time to converse the situation, then come back later to see what they had agreed on.
The state of affairs in question presents a dilemma in terms of nursing practice.
According to Kozier et al (2010), moral “relating to right and wrong” (p. 300). From the moral aspect of this situation, it was wrong of the nurse to leave the client and her family arguing without providing the necessary information to put the client and her family at ease. In this case, the nurse is not takin...
... middle of paper ...
...care. It is not easy to prevent unjust practice in health care facilities, because each individual deal with each circumstances differently. All we can do is continuously teach nurses that the patient come first and our job is to advocate for client’s right to autonomy, respect, privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and access to appropriate information. Practice in accordance with the Nursing Profession Act and its regulations and bylaws, the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Code of Ethics, principles, statements, guidelines or documents. Nurse most also responds to and reports to appropriate person, when there is a situation, which may be adverse for clients or health care providers, including, incompetence, misconduct and incapacity. In conclusion, you should act as and role model for student nurses, colleagues and others, by doing the ethical thing.
Section 5.4, which is the preservation of integrity, suggests that nurses will inevitably have to deal with threats to their moral or professional integrity at some point in their careers. Nurses should do their best to maintain professional integrity when met with adversity, weather it be from uncooperative issuance companies, an unsound work environment, or from the patients themselves. When working in an unsound or unsafe work environment that violates law or the ANA code of ethics nurses must go through the proper channels to fix the problem. If a nurse feels that a procedure or treatment their patient is having conflicts with his or her own moral integrity and they cannot participate, the nurse must report they unwilling to tr...
During week 4, we became familiar with the application of ethics in the nursing practice settings. We learned about ethical theories and principles, which are crucial when practicing in any clinical settings during ethical decision-making and while facing one or multiple ethical dilemmas. Also, we were introduced to the MORAL model used in ethical decision – making progress. The MORAL model is the easiest model to use in the everyday clinical practice, for instance at bedside nursing. This model can be applyed in any clinical settings and its acronyms assist
In the medical profession, doctors and nurses run into ethical dilemmas every day whether it be a mother who wants to abort her baby or a patient who has decided they want to stop cancer treatment. It is important for the nurse to know where they stand with their own moral code, but to make sure they are not being biased when educating the patient. Nurses are patient advocates, it is in the job description, so although the nurse may not agree with the patient on their decisions, the nurse to needs to advocate for the patient regardless.
...ay arise between health care professionals, nurses, and the patient and family. Most often, when an ethical dilemma occurs, nurses most make a choice between the two equally unfavorable alternatives.
To be involved in the nursing profession, you must abide by the Code of Ethics provided for nurses. Nurses must hold the good of the patient as its most important value; this is the ultimate goal in the nursing profession. They must treat each patient as an individual, care for them with respe...
This paper will focus on two BNUR leaner outcomes (University of Calgary, 2013) relevant to my learned understanding of nurses as ethical decision makers. I will outline the ways that I have seen ethics used and not used in practice, what I learned about ethics and its use in my theory courses and throughout my practicums, and I will reflect on how this understanding will translate into my professional practice moving forward.
Since ethical dilemmas are not always easily answered through the use of The Code of Ethics, ethical decision-making models are effective tools that can assist nurses in dealing with ethical issues. Ethical decision-making models provide a framework for working through difficult choices. They seek to define the limits of what is morally acceptable and help clarify the guidelines for making those difficult decisions. Ethical decision making models assist nurses in analyzing situations by focusing on understanding the patient needs, need for responsiveness to circumstantial considerations, and recognizing the uniqueness of each situation.
According to American Nurses Association (ANA), (2010) “the nurse promotes, advocates for and strives to protect the heath, safety and right of the patient” (p. 6). Nursing responsibilities should be acted at the highest standard and must be based on legal and ethical obligations.
Several ethical principles that are incorporated in the nursing care of patients on a daily basis are nonmalificence, autonomy, beneficence, justice, fidelity and paternalism. Nurses should strive to comply to as many of the principles as possible. In this case there are principles which support and conflict with the wishes of the patient. The first principle that supports the wish of the patient is autonomy. Autonomy means that competent patients have the right to make decisions for themselves and the delivery of the healthcare that they receive. Another factor that would support the patient’s wish to not be resuscitated is nonmalificence. Non maleficence means that nurses should not cause harm or injury to their patients. In this case the likelihood of injury after resuscitation was greater than if the patient were allowed to expire. A principle that could have negatively affected the outcome of the provision of ethical care was paternalism. Paternalism is when a healthcare provider feels that they know what is best for a patient, regardless of the patient’s desire for their own care. I demonstrated the principle of paternalism because I thought that I knew what was best for the patient without first consulting with the patient or family. This situation might have had some very negative consequences had the patient not have been competent. Practicing a paternalistic mindset might have caused a practitioner in the same instance to force their ideas about not resuscitating the loved one onto the family. This could have caused a sense of remorse and loss of control of care amongst the
The ethical situation in question is a culmination of intolerance, ignorance, cultural insensitivity, and failure to follow hospital protocols and procedures. The location of the facility in which the ethical dilemma took place is a small, rural hospital in the Midwest of the United States of America. A new male patient has been admitted and he is currently a practicing Muslim. The facility does not have a large Muslim population and does not have any cultural protocols in place to accommodate the Muslim religion.
An ethical dilemma is defined as a mental state when the nurse has to make a choice between the options and choices that he or she has at her disposal. The choice is a crucial task as the opting of the step will subsequently determine the health status of the concerned patient, hence it requires a great deal of wisdom along with proper medical and health training before any such step is opted as it is a matter of life and death. Strong emphasis should therefore be on the acquisition of proper knowledge and skills so that nurses do posses the autonomy to interact with patients regarding ethical issues involved in health care affairs and address them efficiently. It is normally argued that nurses are not provided sufficient authority to consult and address their patients on a more communicative or interactive level as a result of which they are often trapped in predicaments where their treatments of action and their personal beliefs create a conflict with the health interests of the patient. (Timby, 2008)
Davis, A. J. (1997). Ethical dilemmas and nursing practice (4th ed.). Stamford, Conn.: Appleton & Lange.
Another huge ethical topic is the patient’s right to choose autonomy in the refusal of life-saving medicine or treatment. This issue affects a nurse’s standards of care and code of ethics. “The nurse owes the patient a duty of care and must act in accordance with this duty at all times, by respecting and supporting the patient’s right to accept or decline treatment” (Volinsky). In order for a patient to be able make these types of decisions they must first be deemed competent. While the choice of patient’s to refuse life-saving treatment may go against nursing ethical codes and beliefs to attempt and coerce them to get treatment is trespass and would conclude in legal action. “….then refusal of these interventions may be regarded as inappropriate, but in the case of a patient with capacity, the patient must have the ultimate authority to decide” (Volinsky). While my values of the worth of life and importance of action may be different than others, as a nurse I have to learn to set that aside and follow all codes of ethics whether I have a dilemma with them or not. Sometimes with ethics there is no right or wrong, but as a nurse we have to figure out where to draw the line in some cases.
The American Nurses Association created guidelines for the profession including, a set clear rules to be followed by individuals within the profession, Code of Ethics for Nurses. Written in 1893, by Lystra Gretter, and adopted by the ANA in 1926, The Code of Ethics for Nurses details the role metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics have within the field (ANA, 2015). Moral obligation for an individual differs within professions than it does within an individual’s personal life, so the code of ethics was written to establish rules within the profession. The moral obligation to provide quality care include the fundamental principles of respect for persons, integrity, autonomy, advocacy, accountability, beneficence, and non-maleficence. The document itself contains nine provisions with subtext, all of which cannot be addressed within this paper however, core principals related to the ethical responsibilities nurses have will be
In every nurse's career, he or she will face with legal and ethical dilemmas. One of the professional competencies for nursing states that nurses should "integrate knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice". It is important to know what types of dilemmas nurses may face