Prior to this assignment, I thought that medical ethics meant to practice nursing as a prudent nurse would practice, in a socially acceptable way. Ethical behavior is one doing what is right rather than what is wrong. I knew that all medical professionals had to comply with patient confidentiality, but I did not realize that all medical professionals, including writers, were held accountable just as if they were providing bedside patient care. I never considered medical writing before and never wrote medical information, other than charting. Charting is a big part of patient care, so naturally I understood the ethical responsibilities that were associated with charting. I also knew that research professionals were also held to high ethical standards because of their interaction with medical patients. After this assignment, I realized I knew less than I thought I did about medical ethics. I learned that all medical professionals, regardless of their position, are held to a high ethical standard.…
The nursing shortage and lack of staffing ratios have created long standing ethical dilemmas as they relate to patient care. Nurses are accountable and responsible for their own morals, decisions and behaviors. Nurses are accountable for judgments made and actions taken in the course of nursing practice, irrespective of healthcare organizations policies or providers' directives which may not always be in the best interest of the patient.…
S.Z, a 65 year old Hispanic male, is being discharged from hospital after being admitted with a blood sugar of 589. He has been seeing a curandero to manage his diabetes mellitus type II, hyperlipidemia, and osteoarthritis. He has not taken his prescription medications for these chronic conditions, but instead takes traditional medicines the curandero tells him to take. His daughter approaches the nurse with her concerns over her father’s heath and asks the nurse if her father’s discharge orders can be cancelled; the daughter would prefer the doctor write orders for her father to be admitted to a nursing home.…
As a nurse it is common knowledge that patient confidentiality is of up most importance. We learn this in nursing school as it is part of the Nursing Code of Ethics and it is a nurse’s duty to keep patient information confidential. (American Nurses Association, 2012). There are however, extenuating circumstances that may require and be appropriate for a nurse to break this rule. As a matter of fact, the nurse could be held responsible if harm came to the patient because she did not speak out. If a patient presents to the ER because he needs stitches in his wrist and tells the nurse that he wants to or was attempting suicide the nurse has a duty to report this and find help for the patient, or possibly the spread of sexually transmitted diseases that are required by law to report. This paper will provide an overview of ethical implications of a breach of confidentiality, an ethical theory, and alternatives to breaching confidentiality using the framework of ethical decision making and the use and role of an ethics committee.…
In her current and only professional practice, there are not many moral or ethical dilemmas she comes across. Actually, she can not think of one instance. In nursing school, however, she had a community rotation where she was supposed to go to a clinic where abortions were performed and she may have been asked to assist in one. This was both a moral and ethical dilemma that went against all that she believed in. This is a huge controversial subject and this writer soon learned that a nurse could refuse to participate in an abortion but could not refuse to care for the woman before or after the procedure. This writer was able to avoid even being asked as on her assigned date, a snow emergency had been…
The free dictionary defined ethical code as a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct. However, it was noted that no code can provide absolute or complete rules that are free of conflict and ambiguity. Because codes are unable to provide exact directives for moral reasoning and action in all situations, some people have stated that virtue ethics provides a better approach to ethics because the emphasis is on a person’s character than on rules, principles, and laws (Beauchamp & Childress, 2001). The core ethical principles in nursing are;…
Within the health care field, effective leaders possess the ability to improve situations, act as patient advocates, and perform leadership roles as moral agents. As a developing professional nurse specialist, it is important to use clinical expertise based on the concept of evidence-based practice to advocate for both patients and staff. The purpose of this paper is to consider an ethical dilemma in the field of nursing and analyze the moral, ethical, and legal implications utilized in the situation.…
Ilene, many of the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses could be eliminated if people would take the time to let their family know what interventions they would want in situations like this. End-of-life planning and advanced care directives will increase the quality of life of a dying patient, ease the ethical decisions having to be made by family members, and will ensure that personal wishes will be abided by (Eggertson, 2013, p. E617). Many people talk about what they do and do not want but never write them down. This leaves the family, doctors, and other health care members second-guessing the wishes of the patient whenever they are too ill or sick to make decisions themselves. If your patient had made these decisions earlier and made it…
In the United States, privacy and confidentiality are the basic rights of the society enshrined not only in professional practice codes of ethics but also in the constitution. Hence, nurses and for that matter, all health care professional have a legal, moral and ethical responsibility to protect patient's privacy.…
However decision making is essential for nurses to participate in order to focus on ethical and moral issues and note situations that appears to be dilemmas with the help of professional and ethical competence (Tschudin, 2002). Moreover unprofessional ethical practice may result to litigations if care was deemed not to be professionally sound.…
Have you had to assist a patient and their families with self-determination? If so, did you have support from your peers and organization at that time?…
The profession of nursing must have high values and ethics, but how does a nurse make that tough ethical decision. Ethical decision making is defined as “The process of choosing between actions based on a system of beliefs and values” (Black, 2014, p. 347). The nurse has to go through a process to come to the most ethical and just decision based on their facility and their ethics.…
As a nurse being empathic to the patient is part on my job as professional in as a humain.Nurses are almost always with the patience,sharing their suffering their feeli ngs…
Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas constantly. Knowing the code of ethics can assist the…
For the purpose of this assignment, ethics in relation to nursing will be discussed. "Ethics; A code of principles governing correct behaviour, which in the nursing profession includes behaviour towards patients and their families, visitorsand colleagues" (Oxford Dictionary of Nursing 2004).…