Professional Ethics - Case Study Example

Running head: PROFESSIONAL ETHICS Professional Ethics Introduction Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that deals with the various virtues like good and bad, right or wrong, in every aspect of life. It can also be defined as a set of moral rules or guidelines that an individual sets for himself to enable him to live a good life. Ethics sets a standard of codes or principles that needs to be adhered to, for the betterment and progress of the society. The paper focuses on ethics in the professional front, its values and implications with respect to the profession in consideration which is nursing. The relationship between legal and ethical issues is given an overview along with an explanation of the existing theories and principles. Ethics – A general outlook They play a very important role in our lives as they help in regulating social behaviour by governing a person’s code of behaviour, thereby preventing any moral wrongs from taking place. There are few categories or branches in ethics that enables us to define and categorise where we stand (Gensler, 1998). Meta-Ethics is based on the concept of finding moral truths and not base one’s thoughts on erroneous beliefs or “naturalistic fallacy”, as conceived by the founder of meta-ethics, G.E.Moore. Applied Ethics is implementing various theories coined by different philosophers over time, in our day to day life and observing their implications. Examples of applied ethics would be in Business ethics, Information ethics and Bioethics. (Gensler, 1998) Moral Ethics Moral Ethics or moral psychology deals with how individuals develop their sense of morality and why is culture an influence. It tries to define morality and brings in the notion of universal good or altruism. Descriptive Ethics is more scientific in its approach and works on studying an individual’s behaviour under different circumstances. It studies that and tries to predict how one should behave under similar situations. Normative Ethics deals with the notion that people should make the right decisions based on the end result. If the end result is good, then it can be concluded that the person has made the right choice or performed the correct moral act. (Gensler, 1998) Professional Ethics We shall look into Professional or Business Ethics more closely. Professional ethics can be best defined as the set of norms or rules on how to conduct oneself in the corporate world. It sets certain ground rules on how a professional should behave in the organization and in the relationships with his clients. All businesses have ethics incorporated today as it has become an integral part for maintaining the integrity of the business organization .They specify the norms that need to be followed and accounted for, to its stakeholders. It is important that all professionals adhere to these norms as the company’s interest should be given priority and any deviation from that would lead to some wrong actions that may hamper the company’s image (Weiss, 2008). It deals with the moral issues that when a professional attains specialised skills for his work, he should follow some governing principles on how to implement them. They should be used only for the good of the company and no other malicious usage should take place. It is argued that all business ethics should be based on utilitarian factors as sometimes there is disparity between the company’s code of ethics and actual practices. To ensure compliance, most ethicists recommend that the company policies should be: 1. Set by the top management and they should provide full support 2. Make non-sexist and unbiased 3. Attainable and practicable 4. Explained through various media and updated regularly 5. Monitored, improvised and controlled by the top level frequently. However, every business has its own set of ethical codes based on the nature of their business, for e.g., a legal officer will have different ethical practices as compared to a medical practioner. (Weiss, 2008) Legal and ethical issues Often there is confusion between legal and ethical values. But, there is substantial difference between them. Legal issues are having specific laws defined for a wrong deed. If one commits a murder, there is a specific law for punishing the wrong doer. However, in ethics, a wrong doer is condemned only by the society and a wrong deed is one that is not morally acceptable. Law is enforced and enacted upon by the designated authorities while ethics tries to determine the morality behind an act. (Lyke, 2011) Ethical codes are established by the society based on past experiences of what acts are good and what are not. Laws are established by certain legislative officials, and not necessarily observe the ethical codes. For e.g. child labour is illegal, being aware of it and not reporting it to the law is unethical. So while they are very different in their meanings, they do go hand in hand in the society. Laws are a must to keep the society a safe place, punish the wrong doers and make examples of them to discourage those kinds of deeds. Ethics on the other hand, is formed by the society, for the social and cultural upliftment and to try and correct wrong doers before it’s too late. (Lyke, 2011) Personal values and ethical issues Everyone has a personal view or opinion to various aspects in life. A value is a belief or a meaningful philosophy. Values form an integral part of every culture and over time they form the traditions of the society. (Lyke, 2011) Every individual has certain personal values that guide them, motivate them, direct them towards their goals and show them the path to righteous behaviour. The centrifugal point to remember is that implementing values energize everything concerned with them. Some of the most important personal values are loyalty, sensitivity, commitments, teamwork, cooperation, efficiency, strength, tolerance, integrity amongst many others. There is a very fine line dividing ethics from personal values. Values define a personal character while ethics only illuminates a social system, where that character plays an important role. The personal values of an individual remain constant while the ethics he practices is society dependent. Professional ethics has very limited scope as it can be practiced only in the workplace as a set of codes of conduct and they are usually enforced upon. Personal values are not enforced but accepted as conformity to society, with each individual having different values. Ethical theories and principles There are millions of ways to define ethics and categorize the different practices, but there has been no rigid definition for it till date. Philosophers have given it a lot of thought and decided to capture the essence of ethics in nine theories, each trying to determine the right course of action (Northern Arizona University, 2011) 1. Consequentialism: this states that the consequence of any action determines if that action is ethical or not. Again there is no defined right or wrong action; it all depends on the individual’s perception. 2. Values Clarification: this states that a person’s ethics should be determined based on his personal values and not on other’s opinions. 3. Utilitarianism: this states that any action that produces a result best for most people is the best ethical action. 4. Moral Absolutism: this states that all actions have an absolute value as in a good act will always be a good act. Hence regardless of the circumstances, an action will always remain moral or immoral. 5. Situation Ethics: states that any action taken or any decision made must be done through emotional thinking like love, helpfulness etc in that moment. Only such actions are ethical in nature. 6. Ethical Realism: states that when two norms come into conflict, the solution is to opt for the one which is lesser of the two evils and that is the right ethical choice. 7. Ethical Hierarcicalism: states that there are many universal norms but when a conflict arises, one must opt for the higher norm for the benefit of greater good and make the right ethical decision. 8. Principle Ethics: states that actions are governed by certain principles and when there is conflict in principles, the ethical decision should be made based upon logic, rationale and reasoning 9. Cognitive Moral Development: states that as every individual develops physically, mentally and emotionally, they develop moral cognizance as well. So when faced with a problem, the ethical solution would be to use critical thinking tactics. Thus, an attempt has been through the above theories to try and define ethics in as best possible ways. However, everyone follow their own interpretation and ideologies when it comes to implementing it in real life. Every organisation implements its own version of ethics, though based on the theories discussed above. Various job profiles have different ethical codes of conduct defined for them based on their nature of work. (Northern Arizona University, 2011) Medical Ethics Medical ethics can be defined as set of guidelines and values that specify the duties of a physician. These values are common across the medical profession. The six major values that comprise the medical ethics are: 1. Autonomy: which gives the patient the right to refuse or choose his treatment. 2. Justice: practice fair and equal treatment and health resources. 3. Dignity: the patient and the physician are treated with dignity 4. Non-maleficence:”first, do no harm”- ensure no harm is done to anyone. (International Council of Nursing, 2006) 5&6. Truthfulness and Honesty: the patient has all the rights to know about his illness and the doctor must be honest while communicating with his patient. These values are not rigid or stringent; they are just a framework to base medical ethics and to handle conflicts. Similar codes of conduct are practised by the nursing community and other health service providers. Nursing ethics have many values common with medical ethics such as justice, non-maleficence and respect for autonomy. The distinguishing factors would be that nursing emphasises on relationships, dignity and collaborative care (International Council of Nursing, 2006). The nursing ethics tend to examine the principle of caring rather that curing keeping the relationship between the nurse and patient in mind. Essentially nurses have four major responsibilities: promote health, prevent illness, reinstate health and assuage sufferings. The International Council of Nursing(ICN) has suggested four basic codes of conduct or ethical codes for nursing that can be used to guidelines. They are: 1: Nurses and people: The professional responsibility of nurses towards people who need care. While providing care, nurses promote a healthy environment, ensure patient confidentiality and share the responsibility of meeting health and social needs. 2: Nurses and practice: The nurse is personally accountable for his/her practice and is responsible in upgrading his/her competence through continuous learning. The nurse has to maintain a standard of personal health and conduct, ensure use of technology that is compatible with safety and dignity of people. 3: Nurses and the profession: The nurse is solely responsible in determining and implementing the standard clinical nursing practice and management. The nurse also should be involved in creating a core knowledge base. They are responsible for creating and maintaining safe social and economic working conditions. 4: Nurses and co-workers: The nurse needs to maintain a good relation with the co-workers and safeguard their interests. These codes of conduct need to adhere to when formulating ethics for any nursing community. As healthcare professionals, they are the closest to the patients and doctors and so face the most unique biomedical ethical dilemmas. The codes of conduct help them face these conflicts, though not all the time they can find a solution that is easy. (International Council of Nursing, 2006) Case study Case Study where a nurse (student’s current practice) faces an ethical crisis: Subject is a registered nurse with 6 years of experience working in San Francisco General Hospital. Subject faces ethical issues with regards to patients consent towards pre surgery anaesthesia. It is mandatory that the patient’s consent is taken on a form and full procedure is explained to the patient before administering anaesthesia. It was observed that though a signature is present on the form it does not indicate that the patient has fully understood its implications. This is in contradiction with the code of ethics which states that the nurse is responsible for the patient’s well being and recovery and the nurse has to be completely truthful and honest with the patients. Also there have been times when the doctors have not used an interpreter while treating non-English speaking patients, which would mean that the patient has not had the procedures explained properly and clearly. This again is a conflict of medical ethics as well as legal ethics where in it is clearly stated that the autonomy of the patient has to be respected and also patient’s beneficence is to be given priority. The corrective process would be that the patient is explained the full procedure before signing the consent form by the nurse (adherence to the professional ethics) and the doctors must use an interpreter for non-English speaking patients and ensure that they are fully aware of the process. Conclusion The role of ethics forming an integral part of society and in every aspect of life has been explained with the support of proven theories. As long as one follows ethics and understands the moral obligation to whatever he or she does, then such a person provides himself with every possibility to lead a better life. The importance of ethics in the field of nursing has been explained with relevant examples and an analysis of the given case study. The contrasting nature of legal and ethical issues have been put forth for everyone’s understanding along with the description of the general concepts of ethics. To conclude, one can clearly achieve success in any profession, as long as he understand and follows the ethics of his/her profession. References Gensler, H. (1998). Ethics: a contemporary introduction. London: Routledge Publications. Weiss, J. (2008). Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach. Stanford: Cengage Learning. Lyke , A. (2011). Professional Values & Ethics Sources. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_7757839_professional-values-ethics-sources.html Northern Arizona University. (2011). Nine Theories of Ethics that rule the world. Retrieved from: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~dgs2/theories.pdf International Council of Nursing. (2006). The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses. Retrieved from http://www.icn.ch/images/stories/documents/about/icncode_english.pdf Read More