Ethical Principles In Nursing Essay

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In nursing, it is not uncommon to encounter situations where nurses are required make ethical decisions based on legal and ethical principles. These situations often are seen in pediatric nursing when there are conflicting views between the parents and their child. For example, Mike is a 15-year-old boy who has been diagnosed again with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) and is to continue another taxing round of chemotherapy. Mike confides to his nurse that he would like to discontinue treatment. Meanwhile, his parents are adamant that treatment continues. The nurse must decide whether to terminate or continue with Mike’s chemotherapy.
The situation described above is an ethical dilemma due to the conflicting principles (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008). If the nurse refuses to give Mike the chemotherapy, he or she is violating the legal power parents attain to give informed medical consent for their children. However, if the nurse gives the chemotherapy they risk losing trust and harming Mike …show more content…

In nursing, the nurse considers the patient to be worthy of respect and uses ethical principles in order to guide …show more content…

It plays an important role in building the framework of trust between the nurse and the patient. A major component of beneficence is to do no harm, or promote good, to the patient (Burkhardt & Nathanial, 2008). By stopping the treatment, the nurse is causing harm to Mike’s body by allowing him to die. If she continues treatment, she is hurting Mike mentally and emotionally while also breaking the trusting relationship between patient and nurse. By giving the treatment, she is doing good in terms of providing support to Mike’s parents and giving hope that Mike has a chance of

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