...other health care providers are constantly challenged to make ethical decisions about life and death issues in providing care to individuals, families and communities. To be relevant and ethical, these decisions need to be considered in the broader context of personal, societal, cultural and professional values and ethical principles (Fry & Johnstone, 2002). Tesfamicael GhebrehiwetThe nursing profession uses regulatory mechanisms, codes of ethics and other means to ensure ethical behavior. For example, The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses asserts, “Inherent in nursing is respect for human rights, including the right to life, to dignity and to be treated with respect” (ICN, 2000, p. 2). To locate ethical issues within the context of nursing, it is vital to understand the International Council of Nurses (ICN) definition of nursing itself: “Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled, and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participating in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles” (ICN, 2005). This definition incorporates the three components of bioethics as outlined by Fry and Johnstone (2002), including norms of nursing practice, expansion of knowledge, and advocacy or policy development...
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...among professional values, ethics, and legal issues. A person’s personal values and ethics can influence their professional values and ethics in the workplace. Finding the right balance between personal and professional views in the workplace will help foster a successful career. This paper will cover relationships between legal and ethical issues as well as personal values and professional ethics. Relationships between Legal and Ethical Issues According to Wacker-Guido & Watson (2010), there are eight ethical principles that nurses encounter when making decisions in clinical settings, autonomy, beneficence, no maleficence, veracity, justice, paternalism, fidelity, and respect or others. In other terms nurses have personal freedom, the right of self-determination, a duty to perform good actions, duty to prevent any harm for occurring to their patients, the obligation to tell the truth, treat all patients equally and fairly, allow others to make decisions for individual patients, keep promises and commitments they make, and to treat everyone with respect. Ethical values are influenced by personal feelings, and are interpreted differently depending on the beliefs of the individual. The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines the code of ethics for nurses as follows: The code of ethics for nurses was developed as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality on nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession. With the advances...
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...NUR 478 Susan Lawson, RN, MS, CLNC July 18, 2010 Professional Ethics Paper The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationships between legal and ethical issues, identify personal values and professional ethics, examine ethical theories and principles, and apply these to current practice examples. Nurses face an ever-growing complexity within their practice as professionals. Understanding the relationship between legal and ethical issues and how to apply that understanding to every day practice is paramount for today’s professional nurse. This paper will further explore these ethical theories and principles while discussing how personal values affect an individual’s nursing practice. The Relationship Between Legal and Ethical Issues Nurses, as with any job, face challenges in order to accomplish the tasks of their role. This is one of the reasons that it is important to have a description that serves as guidance as to how the role is to be accomplished. Without such guidelines, it is likely that there will be a breach of established rules along the way to performing duties and accomplishing the job duties. In situations where one person exercises authority over another, there are important guidelines that define relationship between the two parties. Legal and ethical principles define how a job is to be carried out and how individuals are to relate to one another. Legal and professional ethics define the liability of the person that is...
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...Ethical and Legal issues in Nursing The nursing profession is very complex. Every day nurses deal with patients and medical care. There are some days when ethics and legal issues play a role. We were given examples of the legal complexities of nursing through two case studies we were to evaluate. For this paper we will discuss the legal responsibilities of nursing, how personal and societal values can influence ethical decision-making and how the ANA’s Code of Nursing Ethics would influence the final decisions. Legal Responsibilities of Nurses Nursing boards are governmental state agencies responsible for regulating the nursing practice. A nursing license obtained through state nursing boards validates that nurses have met standards for providing high quality care. Nurses are legally held accountable for administering medications accurately, educating patients and public on health issues, advocating for the patient regarding health care, and serving as a liaison between the patient and the physician. Professional standards are determined by Standards of Practice Acts and the American Nurses Association’s Code of Ethics. As professionals, nurses must also be familiar with ethical responsibilities and protect the rights of their patients and families. As the definition of liability has continued to expand through the judicial system, courts of laws have placed higher standards on the profession of nursing. Many times professional...
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...Personal Ethics: My nursing ethic Swaranjeet Kaur Sidhu Grand Canyon University: NRS-437V 03/22/2014 My Nursing Ethic People have their own views on certain issues. In the healthcare field many nurses will encounter ethical issues which may place themselves in a dilemma. “Ethics is that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.” (Ethics, 2014). A nurse or healthcare worker might have personal values that get in the way for a patient to receive the adequate care they require. Sometimes having personal values become an important factor in the nursing practice. A nurse’s personal, cultural, and spiritual values contribute to practice in nursing. In nursing school students learns about different types of ethical principles that is applied to their nursing practice. The students are taught a specialized body of knowledge, standards of their practice, and how to deal with different individuals according to their selected professional. “The nurse, in a professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems” (ANA, 2008). In the nursing field the nurse is expected to deliver good care, respect the patients and their decisions...
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...What primary relationships do you see between legal and ethical issues faced by nurses in their practice? How would you explain these relationships to others? What would you say are at least two ethical dilemmas that are often faced by nurses in their daily practice? Explain how accountability and responsibility play a role when nurses face with these dilemmas. One of the most well known ethical dilemmas that nurses can face in their career is their patient's belief system. One example is the familiar dilemma of when a patient has a strong religious belief that interferes with sound evidence base medical practice. For example Jehovah Witnesses forbid blood transfusions under any circumstance. Even when it's the difference between life and death, the answer will always be no blood transfusion. Most knowledgeable and experience nurses will attempt to explain the necessity and benefits of the blood transfusions, but it's also understood that it's the nurse's job to support patient's rights. Nurses often face unique challenges because of the amount of time they actually spend with patients and their family. Nurses are typically the ones who actually witnesses the patient's or family's struggle to make crucial decisions. Most often nurses are engaged with the patient and their family more than any other healthcare provider. One key fact to recognize is nurses bring with them their personal values, which at times can be in direct conflict with what their patient wants...
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...Values A) Functional Differences: The functional differences between a regulatory agency, like the Texas Board of Nursing and a Professional Nursing Organization, like with Texas Nurses Association, are many. Even though both agencies support nursing, they do in different ways. The mission statement of the Texas Board of Nursing is as follows: “The mission of the Texas Board of Nursing is to protect and promote the welfare of the people of Texas by ensuring that each person holding a license as a nurse in the State of Texas is competent to practice safely” ("Mission and Values," n.d., para. 1). One of the primary roles of the BON is license issues. They issue and renew licenses for nurses in the State of Texas. They issue all licenses to graduates of approved nursing education programs. All nurses are required to renew their licenses on a biennial basis with evidence of required continuing education. In the State of Texas, RN’s must have twenty hours of CEU’s every two years for this renewal process. The BON enforces the NPA (Nurse Practice Act) and nursing education, conducting investigations of complaints against nurses and adjudicating complaints ("Licensure Renewal," n.d.). Texas Nurses Association (TNA) is a professional nursing organization with supports and advocates for nurses. The mission statement of the TNA is as follows: “Advancing the nursing profession through leadership, collaboration, advocacy and innovation” ("Mission," n.d., para. 1). The TNA was founded...
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...patients. They state that the administrator must always be respectful and honest, follow all rules and regulations, never exploit any professional relationship, and never discriminate or allow discrimination against patients ("American Academy of Medical Administrators", 2012). Administrative ethical issues continue to occur despite having the code of ethics in place. This paper will reflect on an ethical dilemma between administration and an employee as well as, discuss the solution to the dilemma. Administrative Issue A registered nurse, working as a flex pool nurse in a hospital, diverts narcotics to reduce anxiety and stress in her job. She signed out medication to patients that had not requested it and she substituted saline for drugs in syringes. When her actions were discovered she was confronted by her own administrator and the administrator of the unit she was assigned too. The nurse confessed to her behavior and asked for help, which was granted with a leave of absence and rehabilitation. The administrative issue at hand is whether the administrators should disclose confidential information concerning an employee to safeguard the patients and promote competent nursing care (Badzek, Mitchell, Marra, & Bower, 1998). The Impact If confidentiality is not maintained the nurses dignity and respect for person could be compromised and her inability to maintain privacy will deny her right to expression of autonomy. Revealing information about this nurse could...
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...Abstract Nursing is a profession focused on assisting individuals, families, and communities in attaining, maintaining, and recovering optimal health and functioning. Modern definitions of nursing define it as a science and an art that focuses on promoting quality of life as defined by persons and families, throughout their life experiences from birth to care at the end of life. In nursing, ethical issues arise daily. There are issues such as death, dying, birth, abortion, genetics, quality of life, and general human rights. The legal system and ethical system overlap in most situations. Every patient contact can produce a legal or ethical situation. Nursing Ethics According to Aiken (2004) “Ethics is the discipline that deals with rightness and wrongness of actions”. The goal is similar to that of the legal system except that in most cases there is no system of enforcement or ethical penalties. “General ethics is the consideration of the morality of human acts in general”. (Fitzpatrick 2002) The Nursing Code of Ethics began in 1893 with the "Nightingale Pledge" which was patterned after the Hippocratic Oath in medicine, and is understood as the first code of nursing ethics. Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that concerns itself with activities in the field of nursing. Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics, such as beneficence, non- maleficence and respect for autonomy. It can be distinguished by its emphasis...
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...Ethics in Nursing Practice, Values and Decision Making Name Name of College Abstract Nurses work with a wide range of patients, and each patient presents their own economic, social and cultural differences. While nurses work to provide care for the sick, injured and dying, they are always working within the boundaries of their professional codes of ethics. The nursing code of ethics is more than laws and common etiquette, and upholding the code of ethics is understood and agreed upon by people in the nursing profession. The two kinds of ethical theories discussed most in nursing are consequentialist and nonconsequentialist theories. By examining these two theories, nurses are able to evaluate the principle of confidentiality and how to apply the principle within reasonable limits. Further understanding of these normative theories gives nurses the abilities to evaluate conflict avoidance and resolution. As nurses further navigate the world of ethics, they discover how the code of ethics is influenced by a person’s culture, and they acquire a solid foundation for current ethical decision-making models used in their industry. Ethics in Nursing Practice, Values and Decision Making Nurses who take care of patients are encouraged to do so with a certain level of politeness. Other than being polite, nurses are required to be skilled, and they must follow the laws which govern them in their field of practice. Between all of the skills, politeness and laws...
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...Nursing Vision Transforming nursing education as it now stands is key for a superior vision of nursing practice. At the absolute minimum, nursing education should prepare individuals to be competent beginners to start practicing in the field. However, on a larger scale, nursing education needs to be much loftier so that it can turn students into leaders as opposed to simple participants in this truly dynamic profession. “Nursing education at all levels needs to provide a better understanding of and experience in care management, quality improvement methods, systems-level change management, and the reconceptualized roles of nurses in a reformed health care system” (Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011). All of these ingredients are necessary to create nurses who truly anticipate patient needs, who have a much loftier understanding of superior practice methods, and who have a more modern viewpoint on the role of nurses in the healthcare industry. Currently, it appears that nursing education serves only to equip most students with the basic skills to work as nurses with the thought that they’ll build their skills as they go along with experience. While this is partly true, nursing education needs to take on more of the burden when it comes to preparing students for the challenges of clinical practice. Nursing education at its highest level of quality needs to teach students how to meet the needs of a diverse range of patients, how to function more confidently...
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...Ethical Issues for Nurses Alexis Bushay HCA 322 Health Care Ethics & Medical Law Instructor: Jennine Kinsey August 18, 2012 Ethical Issues for Nurses Ethical issues have always affected the role of the professional nurse. Efforts to enact this standard may cause conflict in health care settings in which the traditional roles of the nurse are delineated within a bureaucratic structure. Nurses have more direct contact with patients than one can even imagine, which plays a huge role in protecting the patients’ rights, and creating ethical issues for the nurses caring for the various patients they are assigned to. In this paper I will discuss some of the ethical and legal issues that nurses are faced with each and every day. Ethics deals with standards of conduct and moral judgment. The major principles of healthcare ethics that must be upheld in all situations are beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice. Beneficence means promoting or doing good. Nurses work to promote their clients' best interests and strive to achieve optimal outcomes. Nonmaleficence means avoiding harm. Nurses must maintain a competent practice level to avoid causing injury or suffering to clients. The principle of nonmaleficence also covers reporting suspected abuse to prevent further victimization and protecting clients from chemically impaired nurses and other healthcare practitioners. Autonomy stands for independence and the ability to be self-directed. Clients have the right of self-determination...
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...ICNE YALE #98 ETHICAL PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY NURSING STUDENTS IN TURKEY Fethiye Erdil and Fatos Korkmaz Nursing students increasingly encounter ethical problems during their clinical practice which sometimes infringe the rights of patients. However, so far there is no study in Turkey on the extent of problems from the perspective of nursing students, as well as how nurses are involved in ethical decision making process. This study is conducted at Hacettepe University Health Science Faculty Nursing Department with the aim of identifying the ethical problems confronted by nursing students. Eighty-four third class and 69 senior nursing students were volunteers to participate in this study. Their age ranged from 19 to 23 years. All participants have taken the course entitled ‘Nursing History and Deontology’ which include 14 hours ethical content. Students were asked to describe moral problems that they observed or encountered during their clinical practice. Ethical problems at clinical practice were reported as physical maltreatment of patients (28%), inappropriate approaches toward patients which cause psychological distress (24%), violation of privacy (21%), providing inadequate information (16%) and discrimination based on the social and economical status (16%). The reasons of these ethical problems were stated by students as the unprofessional conduct of physicians (34%) and nurses (44%), and ineffective hospital management (9%). The most striking finding of this study...
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...business transaction. Being ethical means the difference between right and wrong. The focus of many businesses is revenue and profits. When this comes into play, many large corporations tend to forget about their employees and the people they might hurt and behave in an unethical manner. Let’s take nursing for example, they face many ethical issues including patient’s privacy, documentation, and pain management. These are just some of the ethical issues nursing face each and every day. Nurses have an enormous responsibility to take care of their patients when they are ill and documenting the process is crucial as well as their patient’s privacy. It is the nurse’s responsibility to respect their patient’s decisions and keep their privacy. As Patricia states, “Nurses provide respect for patient autonomy by recognizing and enhancing a patient's freedom of choice, respecting patient choices, and providing privacy” (Patricia Bratianue). Nurse’s obligation is to protect his or her patient’s privacy as well as their health. The patient has the right to choose what he or she wants that is if a certain medicine is right for them or if the patient wants a certain type of procedure done. Some of the things that should be avoided in these type of scenarios is that even though it is the nurse’s responsibility to look after their patient, the nurse should not make decisions based on her beliefs or what she thinks is right. Nurse’s should follow what they learned in nursing school and Patients have...
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...Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing Team C NUR/391 Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing Nurses face various ethical and legal issues in the medical setting. As professionals, nurses must be aware of these legal and ethical issues when they occur. Nurses have a legal and ethical obligation to respond to these issues. Being a professional nurse requires a nurse to assess the pros and cons of different situations, but also to withhold their personal beliefs and listen and respect the beliefs and traditions of others. Legally Nursing implications require nurses to maintain licensure, obey state and federal laws and to remain within their scope of practice. Within these legal and ethical issues the American Association Code of Nursing ethics, personal and societal values, legal aspects and legal responsibilities all affect decisions. Two different cases will be discussed and explored; an advance directive case involving a woman by the name of Marianne, and a malpractice case involving a nurse and the involved healthcare organization. The American Nurses Association Code of Nursing Ethics can influence the final decision made in the case study involving Marianne’s family by designating a surrogate. According to "American Nurses Association" (2011), “The nurse supports patients self-determination by participating in discussions with surrogates, providing guidance, referral to other resources as necessary, and identifying and addressing problems in the decision-making...
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