Nursing Ethical Principles

The ANA Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice include a list of standards. These standards are statements, which summarize what is expected from nurses in professional nursing practice. The standards form the foundation for decision-making and provide nurses with direction including which actions to take (Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, 2015). The ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements aids as the ethical structure in professional nursing and offers direction for the future. The ANA Code of Ethics includes nine provisions, which summarize the main ethical ideas, values, and morals for the nursing profession and provides a guide for nurses to use in ethical analysis and decision-making, including which actions to take (Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements,

Amidst a whirlwind of change, nurses continue their roles as competent, honorable professionals. A relatively new issue, cultural integrity, correlates with the Code regarding “treatment of the human response.” The American Nurses Association’s “Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements”, also called the Code, highlights nurses’ consensus on professional principles. Nursing ethics guide how practitioners treat their patients and peers. Sensitivity to individual societal, familial and cultural background plays an important role in organizational integrity.

The ethical principle of respect for autonomy does not require nurse’s to respect all autonomous actions no matter how irrational the decision or horrible the results might be. Nurse’s must simultaneously uphold responsibilities to themselves and to other people

Ethics is very important in nursing practice and involves respect and advocacy for the needs of the patient. Both, ethics and honesty have major impact on patient safety. Another core value is autonomy. Autonomy is demonstrated when the nurse supports independent decision making and respects the patient`s right to self-determine the course of action. Human dignity is another core value in nursing practice.

Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas related to clinical issues, and disease and treatment decisions daily (Kangasniemi,

Rhetorical Analysis on an Exposia of Nursing Ethics In the essay “ Nursing’s Code of Ethics, Social Ethics, and Social Policy,” Marsha D. Fowler explains the history of Nursing ethics and what should be utilized in today’s society. Fowler explains to her readers what nurses should promote within the healthcare field. The purpose of her essay is to persuade her audience, whom are Nurses or someone who has background knowledge, into taking action. In order to explain the importance of ethics, Fowler uses two primary arguments emphasising, nurses need to have a stronger voice in policy making and they need to follow the code of ethics which was set for them.

Ethics serve as a guide for moral and ethical conduct and thus treat people with dignity, respect and uniqueness regardless of age, sex, color or religion. Also adhere to their job description and within the nation’s healthcare workforce. Surveys from several nursing specializations reported that there is no differences in

Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemma, is a situation in which there is a choice between two options, neither of which resolves the situation completely. In other words, both options will result in negative results based on society and/or personal guidelines. Labor and delivery nurses are often confronted with ethical dilemmas in practice. To help student nurses prepare for this eventuality, nursing programs do their best to incorporate education about ethics and professionalism into courses. This introduction to ethics in nursing school also assists future nurses to begin recognizing and managing their own personal values in a way that can help guide them in resolving ethical conflicts they will encounter throughout their professional careers.

A nurse must keep up to date on education and new processes in health-care, so they can provide the best care. As a nurse, you have promised to give each of your patients the best care that can possibly be given. Nurses must follow a code of ethics, to act safely, provide ethical care no matter how they feel about the patient or the reason they are in your care. Following this code of ethics shows your commitment to caring for people and society, it is a guide of ethics and standards to follow to keep everyone safe. Nursing is also a wonderful opportunity to meet hundreds of people from almost every nationality and every walk of life.

All nurses should take positive actions to help their patients and to have the desire to do good. On the other hand, nonmaleficence is the core of the nursing ethics and it revolves around the idea that nurses have to remain competent in their field as to avoid causing injury or harm to patients. Nonmaleficence also requires all health care professionals to report any suspected abuse. The last ethical principle is justice. This ethical principle revolves around the idea that all patients must be treated equally and fairly.

(Elliot & Olver, 2008). The principles in acting with the best interest of the other person in mind, showing compassion and taking positive action to help others which relates to the second main principle being beneficence. Likewise, I will discuss non-maleficence, the core of medical oath nursing ethics the principle that “above all do no harm”.

Military Nurse’s Dilemma Chi Tiet University of Michigan - Flint Nurses are a group of professionals who faces a variety of ethical dilemmas while working. Therefore, these dilemmas cannot only impact on their personalities but also affect their patients. However, ethical dilemmas are argumentative and difficult to deal with, so there is no “right” or “wrong” answer for them. In a military nurse’s dilemma, a military RN is ordered to force feeding a terrorist prisoner while he is undergoing interrogation, and the prisoner is on a hunger strike protesting. The nurse is torn, but fearing of reprisal if orders are disobeyed, so the nurse is appalled at the over-riding a patient’s wish by force feeding him agains his wish.

Utilitarianism and Deontology are two major ethical theories that influence nursing practice. Utilitarian principles of promoting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people parallels the nursing tenet of beneficence. Deontological principles of treating individuals with dignity, and promoting the well-being of the individual parallels the nursing tenet of non-maleficence. Utilitarian and Deontological principles can be utilized to resolve ethical dilemmas that arise in the nursing profession. The purpose of this paper is to define utilitarianism and deontology, discuss the similarities and differences between the two, and to address an ethical dilemma utilizing utilitarian and deontological principles.

Background and Significance of the Study Moral integrity is the key ingredients and navigator in professional nurses that lead to ultimate goal of nursing care. It has been recognized as a fundamental part of professional nurses’ practice (Ulrich et al, 2010; Pavlish et al, 2012). Professional nurses play the largest role to support the need for individualized treatment of the patient. The goals of the profession of nursing are related to ethical and involve protecting patients from harm while providing care that is the most benefit for the patient (Bosek, 2009; Kopala&Burkhart, 2005; Helft, 2011; Susan, 2013,). Nowadays, professional nurses have encountered to face and manage with moral problem that occur from complexity of patient health problems, advances in technology, inappropriate of health care system, policies and priorities that conflict with care needs, inadequate staffing and increased turnover, or lack of administrative support (Brazil et al. 2010; Eizenberg et al. 2009; Elpern et al. 2005;

All in all this is a tough decision, especially for the nurses because they are faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis and it’s hard to make the right decision while trying to advocate for the patient at the same time. (Poikkeus