Ethical issues in clinical practice By: Miami Dade College Medical Campus School of Nursing RN-BSN NUR-3805 Abstract In every nurse's career, the nurse is faced with many legal or ethical dilemmas. One of the professional competencies for nursing states that nurses should integrate knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice. As such, it is important to know what types of dilemmas nurses may face during their careers and how they may have been dealt with in the past. It is also important for nurses to understand what malpractice is and how they may protect themselves from a malpractice suit. Nursing students increasingly encounter ethical problems during their clinical practice which sometimes infringe the rights of patients.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing In nursing profession, The America Nursing Associate (ANA) Code of Ethic acts as a backbone to guide health care team to look deep into all different angle when making ethical decision. The Code of Ethic was created to assist nurses to preserve his or her professional principle of values, morals and ethical when caring for patients. Every nurses have a duty to protect and respect all patients' cultural belief, values, and dignity. Moral and ethical principles are the cord to direct any ethical decision making. It is a path to the open road for nurses to gain critical thinking, differ aspect of life.
Professional Ethics Paper Margaret Simon HCS/478 Health Law and Ethics April 15, 2014 Ann-Marie Peckham Professional Ethics Paper The purpose of this paper is to discuss professional ethics, examine the relationship between laws, ethics, and discuss different ethical theories and principles. Furthermore to discuss how these theories and principles are applied in daily practice. As nurses we are confronted with ethical issues on a daily basis, unfortunately the ethical decision may not always correlate with the laws at hand. It is important a nurse to study and understand the relationship between law and ethics, so to provide the best possible care to patients, while abiding by their moral and values. According to Judson and Harrison (2010), two reasons to study law and ethics is to help health care professionals function in the highest capacity, while providing competent, compassionate care to patients, and to prevent legal issues that can end your profession (p. 3).
Registered nurses are in a position to advocate for the rights of their patients and are often involved in ethical decision-making processes. Ethical decisions arise when the nurse is faced with a choice, in which he or she believes there is the potential for a bad or good outcome. In the case of Marianne the ethics committee will have to weigh the physician’s recommendation of surgery to remove the clot, her husband’s desire to “try everything” and her children’s belief that she would not want to have surgery only to live with a poor quality of life. In a malpractice case it is essential to remember the ANA Code of Ethics. According to “Code of Ethics” (2007), the second provision states, “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, or community” (ANA, 2001, p. 18).
I will first provide an overview of the issue in relation to both these fields of nursing and discuss why it is important and the impact it has on nursing care. I will then highlight any similarities and/or differences that may rise between the two fields. Adult nurses provide a high standard of essential personal care with dignity and compassion, while also being able to undertake complex interventions and use specialist skills, such as communication-the basic skill needed to survive as a nurse. Philippa Sully (2003) stated that “development of effective working relationships underpins all aspects of nursing practice. Whether we are exploring the best way to arrange shift cover or discuss with patients and their families the most appropriate community care, how we communicate depends on our professional relationships with all those involved.” In other words, communication is a key aspect in nursing as a whole.
Ethical Issues in Nursing This book examines major ethical issues in nursing practice. It eschews the abstract approaches of bioethics and medical ethics, and takes as its point of departure the difficulties nurses experience practising within the confines of a biomedical model and a hierarchical health care system. It breaks out of the rigid categories of mainstream health care ethics (autonomy, beneficence, quality of life, utilitarianism…) and provides case studies, experiences and challenging lines of thought for the new professional nurse. The contributors examine the role of the nurse in relation to themes such as informed consent, privacy and dignity, and confidentiality. Nursing accountability is also considered in relation to the contemporary Western health care system as a whole.
Ethical and Legal Issues in Nursing The nurse has a unique ability to follow a specific and a general code of ethical decision-making while caring for the most vulnerable of patients. The nurse must navigate public health law, educational law, and his or her institutional policies while keeping his or her own personal beliefs from controlling what is best for the patient. Ethics are “the principles of conduct governing one’s relationships with others-basic beliefs of right and wrong…. Law is the minimum ethic, written down and enforced.” (Ellis& Hartley, 2008, p. 288) The registered professional nurse must use resources to assist her, including the ANA Code of Ethics and the state’s nurse practice act. A final influence in the case of both of these cases, as with case one, Marianne could not make her decisions, as a patient advocate, the code ethics states in provision 1.3, “The nurse respects the dignity and rights of all human beings irrespective of the nature of the health problem.
Henry is not so convinced and as the procedure looms closer he asks his nurse to help him make a decision on whether or not to go ahead with the procedure. The conclusion will involve how the nurse negotiates with Henry and what outcomes will be possible for Henry and his daughter. It is the responsibility of the nurse and multi-disciplinary teams to identify and protect vulnerable patients. Defining what is vulnerable is very difficult; The Department of Health (DOH ) describe a vulnerable adult as “a person aged 18 years and over, who is in receipt of or may be
When providing patient care in the healthcare field, as professionals, nurses need to be prepared for the challenges that might arise on the hospital setting. Being prepared can make challenges or situations in the nursing field less difficult or provide less resistance for decisions to make in delivering the best quality of care. Whether it is caring for a minor in labor or a same sex couple in the hospital being evaluated, special protocols must be implemented to provide the highest quality of care. As in the case of Rachel who is a minor unwed and in the early stages of labor admitted to the hospital, accompanied by her parents who has not been given meds or been seeing by the physician on duty who happens to be attending another emergency. Where clearly has brought a difficult situation to the healthcare team of the hospital raising ethical and legal issues in all aspects due to the fact that the parents of the pregnant teen have refused any assistance and the nurse assigned has complied silently.
In the second case study regarding the malpractice and negligence of a nurse, the primary obligation according to the ANA code of ethics is to the patient. Provisions II and IV of the ANA code of ethics states that the nurse is responsible to provide optimum patient care and the primary commitments are to the patient. “Business priorities may be pressing in the organization, and powerful enough to cause conflict of interests.” (Lachman, 2009). Therefore, it is important for the RN to maintain integrity as a professional and act in