American Nurses Association Ethical Issues

Nurses rely on personal knowledge and their professional skills to provide ethical care (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). In everyday practice, nurses must balance the needs of their patients against those of the organization, society and themselves. They strive to deliver the highest level of care for patients, but adjusting for limited organizational and personal resources often requires difficult decisions. This paper explores the following scenario suggested by Maville and Huerta: “You are a nurse providing home care to a mother, and you suspect child abuse after observing the mother’s reaction to her child” (as cited by Arizona State University, 2014). When faced with a moral dilemma, a competent nurse incorporates ethical, bioethical and legal considerations. In the proposed story, incorporating the nursing ethics of advocacy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and collaboration will guide the nurse towards an appropriate and legal course of action.

Today nurses in all roles participate in ethical decision making arising from mortality, relationships, and conduct issues surrounding patient care and families. This is particularly the situation with ethical issues involving pediatrics and those unable to take their own decisions. While the patients’ interests should come first, there are many other factors that come into play when providing pediatric patient care: parents’ knowledge, cultural and religious practices, and the pediatric patient’s knowledge of their disease. Therefore, it is essential for nurses to follow the American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics to carry out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession. In this paper I will discuss the ethical issues that deal with a fourteen year old boy with Cystic Fibrosis (C.F.). He has been faced with the proposition from his pulmonologist that he will not survive another acute respiratory distress attack and will have to intubated if his status deteriorated. However, he and his parents are not agreeing on whether or not he should be intubated if his status deteriorated with his next attack. This poses a huge ethical dilemma because as a nurse we are the patient’s advocate and need to do everything we can to make our patient comfortable as well as having the parents understand and accept the patient wants and desires.

Provision 8.1 of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics denotes that health is a universal right. The provision states, “the nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities” (Lachman, Swanson, & Windland-Brown, 2015, p. 365). From chapter 1, the ethical theory that best fits provision 8.1 is utilitarianism. The ethical theory of utilitarianism theorizes “one should act so as to do the greatest good for the greatest number” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett, & Garrett, 2013, p. 4). This theory promotes a universal method because it signifies that even if a decision is made and does not benefit every single person; however, benefits most

Nurses have been successful advocates for improvement of the individuals, communities and indeed Nations. However much more work needs to be done to reduce health disparities, improvement of quality and safety in the health system. As well as improve access to care and formulate policies in organization that focus on the need of patients. In my opinion, nurses sometimes believe in a common mistake that nurses lack the power to be effective in the legislative arena. However, I just want to emphasize that nurses are the largest group of health care providers, and we can generate enough power to successfully reform the health care system based on numbers

Health Care Reform, Policy and Advocacy. (2017). The American Nurses Association (ANA). Retrieved August 20, 2017.

Drafted by congress under the recommendation of president Barack Obama, signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President after long legislative debates, the Affordable Care Act 's main purpose is to provide access to affordable and comprehensive health coverage to millions uninsured Americans who do not have coverage or adequate coverage, those who would be denied coverage under the previous insurance practice either base on pre-existing condition, gender or age, while controlling the cost of health care. (New York Time, October 26, 2014) The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the Affordable Care Act, examine the nine titles of the law, their effectiveness as well as their impact on the nursing practice today

To ensure that we as nurses are advocates for not only our patients, but also out communities as a whole, it is imperative for us to fully understand our scope of proactive and our voices that can be heard as an individuals but also as a collaborative voice in legislations by being in empowered professional groups such as the ANA. Promoting better health care polices benefits our society with better health outcomes as well as better financial futures since a healthier society wastes less money and resources when compared to one that does not promote health initiatives. One way to ensure that we as nurses are up to date on current policy and legislation issues is to join a professional group such as the ANA. Advocacy for health care policy requires knowledge and efforts of such large groups and active lobbyists that professional organizations can offer its members (Abood, 2007). Being well informed by a reputable and trust worthy group not only keeps one up to date on all current healthcare issues, but also gives access to resources to actively engage in proposed solutions so that nurses may better advocate for the patients and populations who are so greatly affected by healthcare

With the ANA support in March of 2010 President Obama proposed the Health Care Reform Act to help assure individuals better, high-quality, and affordable health care insurance coverage. ("Health care reform in the United States", 2010, p.1). "The health care is a human right, and will continue to fight on behalf of nurses and their patients to ensure that this is achieved" (Ana: Ensuring nurses, paragraph, 1). By attending and speaking at public health care events, being involved with other stakeholders like; Health Reform Dialogue (HRD) group, and along with staying up to date and in contact with the Congress and Capitol Hill the ANA shows it's involvement to achieving the goal that the health care reform act insures. Stakeholders and other health care professional organizations gather to speak about " health coverage, disease prevention, and increasing funds for education. These ideas are now being projected to the media and Congress (Ana: Ensuring nurses).

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a full-service professional organization that symbolizes the interests of registered nurses through its constituent and state nurses associations. The ANA implements the nursing profession by raising high standards of nursing practice, honoring the rights of nurses in the work field, promoting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by pushing the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. Their mission statement is, “Nurses advancing our profession to improve health for all.” Some of ANA’s main focuses are reformation of the health care system so that it delivers primary health care in the communities, growing roles for

Individuals involved in political action are often looked at as advocates, moreover, nurses specifically have a role in advocating for the marginalized, disenfranchised, and vulnerable populations. The impact nursing has on political action dates back to “the 1960s and 1970s with the push for women’s rights and issues surrounding consumer rights” (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 31). Nurses became known as advocates for their patients which physicians interpreted to going against what they felt to be in the best interest of the patient’s health. The nurses were not carrying out the orders physicians gave, stating they were advocating for their patients. With the movement of nurses advocating for their patients, that opened the doors for an opportunity where nurses could begin practicing autonomously and establishing nursing as a profession. Some states have gone so far as to defining, within their nurse practice act, how nurses will advocate for their patients, nursing, and the health care field (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 32). Quality of a great advocate include, feeling empathy towards the patient, situation, or issue. As you learn to empathize, you become passionate about the situation and/or issue (e.g. health disparity), thus becoming engaged in the situation. As nurses, we are extremely passionate about what we do. This leads us to tap into our moral compass and how we identify with the patient, situation, or

Healthcare Reform has been and still is a highly debated controversial political issue in this country. It has been a hot topic of past presidential campaigns, with many proposed solutions, none of which were enacted upon by Congress. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010. This law or Obamacare, as it is commonly called, was designed to cover the 48 million Americans, including about 1 million in New Jersey who did not have health insurance. It is envisioned to provide seamless, affordable, quality care that is accessible to all. Great emphasis will be placed on transforming our current “sick care” hospital system into a community “health care” system of prevention and health promotion. This paper discusses the evolving and future roles of nurses under the new system. It also examines the proposals of a joint committee made up of members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), as an initiative to help nurses in their new leadership roles to a healthier nation.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the professional organization that represent almost 3.4 million registered nurses of the United States. The mission of the ANA is “Nurses advancing our profession to improve health for all” (American Nurses association [ANA], 2015). It acts as a voice of nurses and involve in advancing and protecting the profession of nursing. The ANA is focus in developing standards for nursing practice, and advocating for rights of nurses in the workplace. Apart from its involvement in enhancing the position of nurses, it also plays significant role in serving the public and the profession of nursing. In addition, the ANA is actively involved in the establishment of various health policies and practices that not only affects the public but also nurses. The health care policies and practices are generally implemented at state or national level. These policies and practices are often build on the foundation of nursing knowledge. The ANA has played a pivotal role in health care reforms such as Medicare reform, patients’ rights, nursing staffing ratio, safe needle practices, whistleblower protections for the health care workers, reimbursement for health care services and access to health (ANA, 2015). At present, the ANA is an avid supporter of the initiation of policy regarding

Ethics in nursing is a series of action and decisions that are in the best interest of the patient and dictate what must be done; is a process of determining right conduct from wrong. It involve principles that guides in everyday clinical practice. This means ethics is an obligation within the nursing practice. Whereas Legal is a set of rules and regulation that guides society in a formal and binding manner. The legal system gives continuing guidance t health care providers, regardless of their personal views and values.

For the Patients The nursing profession has faced numerous challenges in proving its value in the healthcare field arena. Historically exclusive for women and only trained by physicians, nurses have emerged from technical tasks to independent practitioners and scientists. In an effort to clearly define the nursing profession, improve its public image, and assert its influence in research and health policy, the American Nurses Association [ANA] established the Code of Ethics to guide the nursing practice and research. Thus, important events- involving social injustices/gender inequality, societal changes, and advancement of the nursing profession- that shaped the nursing code of ethics and research happened during (1893-1950) and after the

It is crucial to remember a nurse’s role as a patient advocate but it is equally as important to not lose sight of the affect nurses can have on politics. Until this semester I personally had little interest vested in politics, I was unaware of the impact that an entity such as nursing could actually make. Currently nurses consist of the largest sector of the healthcare workforce. There are 3.1 million nurses in the United States, a large number that is often overlooked by the government because enough nurses are not advocating for political changes within the healthcare field. As we learned in class this has led to nurses being referred to as the sleeping giant. The number of employed nurses in this country is rather large and as such they