Nursing Ethics Essay

Nurses face many challenging ethical situations in their nursing practice almost every day. They have to make difficult decisions for which there is not always an easy or ‘correct’ answer. Frequently, nurses can find themselves in a morally difficult position when having to make a decision about whether to act on perceptions of patients’ best interests or to follow the health care provider protocol or the doctors’ orders.

The purpose of this paper is to present an ethical dilemma, as well as describe stakeholder involvement and any policies and laws involved in this dilemma. According to Butts and Rich (2016), an ethical dilemma is defined as a complex situation in which a person must chose between two actions. Ethical dilemmas are predominant on a day to day basis in the nursing profession. When nurses face ethical dilemmas, often none of choices or options feel completely right therefore they are centered around moral importance, critical thinking, and the principle to do the most “good” for patients (Butts & Rich, 2016).

The Code of Ethics for Nurses was created to be a guide for nurses to perform their duties in a way that is abiding with the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession and quality in nursing care. The Code of Ethics has excellent guidelines for how nurses should behave, however; these parameters are not specific. They do not identify what is right and wrong, leaving nurses having to ultimately make that decision. Ethics in nursing involves individual interpretation based on personal morals and values. Nursing professionals have the ethical accountability to be altruistic, meaning a nurse who cares for patients without self-interest. This results in a nurse functioning as a patient advocate, making decisions that are in the best

Ethics and Morals play an important role in the nursing profession; nurses are confronted with choices to make every day, and some of them more challenging than others. Ethics are affirmations between what it can be right or erroneous. For our society ethics is presented as a complex system of principles and beliefs. This system serves as an approach with the purpose of ensuring the protection of each individual within the society. On the other hand, morals are basic standards between what is right or wrong; each individual learns to identify these standards during the early stages of human development (Catalano, 2009). A person with morals is usually somebody who recognizes how to respond to the needs of another individual by giving care and keeping a level of responsibility while giving this care (Catalano, 2009).

An Ethical dilemma is a problem without a satisfactory resolution. Nurses can face ethical dilemmas everyday whilst at work in almost any work setting. Ethics involve doing ‘good’ whilst causing no harm to the patient, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to ethics. There are many ethical issues in nursing which come daily and as a nurse they must make a decision. The decision they will have to make will be affected by many different factors, including own personal opinion or beliefs, experiences and what they would have learned at nursing school.

Personal ethics is something that every individual has instilled in them and lives their life by.  Personal, cultural, and spiritual values contribute to an individual’s worldview and philosophy of nursing, in the nursing practice.  An ethical dilemma may arise when the individuals personal values, philosophy and worldview conflict with their obligation to nursing practice.  Individual views and morals affect the behavior and decision’s made by each person.  The health care field creates an environment that creates ethical dilemma’s based on the morals of each individual who practices nursing.

In nursing core values and code of ethics. What we will first discuss is what are the core values and code of ethics and the second discussion about how can we apply

Ethics can be roughly described as the standards or moral principles of human behavior and how those individuals conduct their activities throughout their lives. Ethics or moral reasoning got their start a very long time ago in the age of the Greeks and were then progressively added to and studied throughout history until this very day. Ethics and its study is at its peak in the field of nursing as is presented mainly by the American Nurses Association as the Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics is a standard guideline tool for nurses to perform their nursing responsibilities in a moral and professional way as to representing their patients care and providing a good outcome. Each area or field of nursing can have a unique set of ethical issues that challenge them daily from minor issues to

Ethical dilemma is a problem without satisfactory resolution.Nurses face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis regardless of where they work., Nurses are faced with ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. There is no solution to an ethical dilemma.The word ethics is originate from the Greek word ‘character’. Nurses are using ethical concepts in during patients care. Ethical concepts include providing care which is good, correct, and rational. Ethical nursing care is based upon rational science and decision making. The most important concepts which are using in nursing professional are respect for patient autonomy, the duty to act with beneficence; no maleficence; and justice.When nurses faced abortion,she believe abortion is

Nurses are required to make important ethical decisions every day. Some of these challenging decisions are made about sensitive controversial ethical issues. Nurses are establishing a gratitude for personal and diverse view points on ethics. Often these ethical instructions are not clear, which has led to open channel of communication between healthcare professionals. Nurses must do more than practice ethics based on individual beliefs, intuition, or unexamined suggestions by other parties. They must develop an understanding of the available concepts, approaches, theories, and principles used to distinguish and analyze many of these challenging ethical dilemmas we as healthcare professionals face today.

Changes in health care and society have led to new and increased awareness of the ethical dimension of nursing and its impact on the delivery of high-quality care (Coverston & Rogers, 2000). In their daily practice, nurses are constantly confronted with decision-making that is ethical in nature. An ethical dilemma is a situation wherein moral precepts or ethical obligations conflict in such a way that any possible resolution to the dilemma is morally intolerable. In other words, an ethical dilemma is any situation in which guiding moral principles cannot determine which course of action is right or wrong. One of the systematic approaches available to nurses in solving ethical dilemma is the ethical decision-making model presented below.

Morals are personal beliefs and values that enlighten the decisions they make every day. Nurses have a sense of duty and obligation to be caring and do what is right for the patient. Having moral courage means that the nurse confronts an issue head on when it conflicts with his or her beliefs and core values. These morals and personal values are part of an individual 's ethical decisions and provide intrinsic motivation to seek out the most appropriate and caring response to a situation (National Career Development Association, 2016). Moral distress results from unresolved or poorly resolved ethical issues in the workplace due to organizational cultures, poor leadership, and lack

Nurses face many ethical dilemmas throughout their career as well. Ethical practice is an important concept in nursing, based on what is considered right or wrong. This is making a choice between two options that are equally unfavorable. Ethical dilemmas are “problems for which more than one choice can be made and the choice is influenced by the values and beliefs of the decision makers” (Henry, et

Many careers may have a code of ethics that the individual within the career has to follow and of course, nursing as a career has its own code of ethics. In the Code of Ethics for Nurses, it has a total of 9 provisions that Nurses need to follow and understand when working within their career with patients. Provision 1 states the nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person. Provision 2 states the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population. Provision 3 states the nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient. Provision 4 states the nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice; makes decisions; and takes action consistent with the obligation to promote health and to provide optimal care. The four provisions tell about the relationship between a nurse and the patient and principles each individual has that should be respected and regarded during the decision making of a medical treatment. All decisions are based on a combination of known facts and personal values. In health care, treatment decisions relate to medical information and personal evaluation of this information. For people to make appropriate decisions, they must have the pertinent information, be able to understand how it applies to themselves, and then make a voluntary, or non-coerced, decision.

According to Marquis&Huston (2015), ethics studies our behavior, personal conduct and how we are expected to behave with other humans within the environment. Each profession has their ethical norms that guide and influence the thinking within that environment, which is all base on the purpose of the profession. The nurse manager has to follow the organization’s norms and values, and their