Values and Ethics in Nursing - Essay Example

A collection of these factors form the basis for a personal ethical philosophy and worldview. Values also play a key function in shaping and influencing the behavior and decision-making among professionals. In nursing practice, personal, spiritual, and cultural values contribute to the philosophy and worldview of nursing.

The personal, cultural, and spiritual values that have contributed to my philosophy and worldview of nursing revolve around my experiences, family background, and the society I grew up in. I was born and raised in the US and right from an early age, it was drilled into me that I should give my all in everything I laid my hands on. My parents also insisted on the same and this noble value became my inspiration, motivation, and source of my nursing philosophy; that is, to uphold a high professional integrity and an ethically competent nursing practice. As a nurse, I have made it
a point in my daily practice to give my best when caring for patients and their families.

The personal values that have shaped my philosophy and worldview of nursing are responsibility and integrity. I have learned to take personal responsibility for everything I do and say and take the blame, however hard it is. Taking responsibility has helped me maintain the hard work mindset inbuilt in me and has motivated me to be consistent with my actions and principles. From my cultural background, I have learned that honesty and humility are important stepping-stones to success and I have learned to be humble and honest to my patients to the most practicable extent. This has helped me attain a good professional relationship as it encourages them to open up and cooperate.

As a Christian, I hold high regard for respect for all people and in every situation. In my nursing profession, I always ensure that I act respectfully towards my patients and their families to show them that they matter greatly and that they are not just other patients or customers of healthcare. Apart from these, the value of doing unto others as I would love them to do for me has also been of great importance in shaping my philosophy and worldview of nursing. As a nurse, I always give my patients the same quality of care I would love to be given if I were in the same situation as them. All these values act as the motivators and drivers behind my efforts to attain my nursing philosophy.  Just as outlined by Scanlon and Glover (1995), these values have served as my guide for developing ethically competent nursing practice.

In nursing practice, values refer to enduring beliefs held by nurses regarding the worth of their patients, professional ideas, and practice whereas morals refer to the rightful way of conduct that is expected of nurses as they interact with their patients and their families. Ethics on the other hand refers to the moral principles/values governing personal conduct that is important to the practice of professional nursing (www.scribd.com, 2010). As a nurse, my personal values, philosophy, and worldview may conflict with my obligation to practice whenever this obligation is guided by a principle that conflicts with my values, philosophy, and worldview and requires that I act contrary to or compromise them. The result of this is an ethical dilemma.

Some of the important morals that one is likely to face in the nursing field are respecting the autonomy of patients, obtaining informed consent before medical procedures, causing them the least or no harm, and seeking to attain more good for the patient. Some of the expected moral dilemmas include the need to act without or contrary to the patient’s will to save their life. My personal views affect my behavior and decision-making by guiding me on the best action for a particular situation. An example of an ethical dilemma I once encountered was dealing with a patient that had refused treatments. The principles of beneficence and autonomy conflicted. From my personal view, respecting the patient's autonomy would deny me the chance to fulfill my obligation of doing good for the patient and ensuring the least harm. I, therefore, went against their will and ordered that they be detained until they completed the medications.

Conclusion

The nursing practice is not just a vocation like any other professional practice but a call to care for people with honesty, humility, and respect while giving them the best for the benefit of their health and lives, and that of their families. It is therefore the noble duty of all nurses to be responsible, hard-working, honest, and respectful when the lives of other people are in their hands. This is important because the philosophies, worldviews, and, values held by nurses influence their attitude, behavior, and decision-making and this impacts directly on the patients and their families.