Ethical and Moral Issues in Nursing - Term Paper Example

? Ethical and Moral Issues in Nursing: Term paper Affiliation) Introduction Nurses play a pivotal role in healthcare hencethey have a responsibility to ensure they discharge their duties satisfactorily in order to realize the organizational goals and meet clients’ expectations (John (2010). However, nurses encounter several challenges in their profession that requires rapid decision making based or personal judgment and creativity. In nurses undergo different stages in their career from training, to work as inexperienced employees, and then qualified workforce. They also possess different roles and responsibilities in the organizations that confront them with ethical and moral issues such as decision making, relating with their colleagues, giving alternative healthcare to the patients, handling varying patient’s needs and issues of cross cultural and personal beliefs (Daly et.al 2005). These issues affect their performance and quality of service they offer patients in their organizations. Ethical and moral issues in nursing Inexperience and lack of confidence Nurses undergo various stages in their career training and work performance (Daly et.al 2005). During their training, nursing students undergo rigorous training in order to acquire general theoretical and practical knowledge that they will require to apply in their work. During the training, nursing students are taught on how to handle clients with different issues during in their work environment. The level of training and knowledge students acquire gives them confidence and courage to get out and attend their clients. After securing jobs, the graduate nurses face numerous challenges due to inexperience and great anticipations of the patients and employers. Normally experienced nurses are supposed to guide the newly recruited workforce in the organization on how to handle various day-to-day issues (Lachman, 2006). However, the workload is generally too huge to match the few nurses hence in most cases graduate nurses are left on their own to handle their problems. The environment itself poses great challenges since the graduate nurses are not able to handle daily problems due to the complexity and diversity of the problems. Alternative care Some patients do not necessarily require drugs for treatment (Daly et.al, 2005). In some instances, nurses find themselves in a dilemma as whether they should administer patients with substitute’s medicine such as vitamin because they feel that some of those medicines they give to the patients may compromise their health status. Confidentiality of the patient’s information Nurses are required to maintain top secret of the information they gather from their patients (Daly et.al, 2005). On contrary, they are required to share the details about patients with their colleagues so that they can be able to offer necessary assistance to the patients and save their lives. These results to complication regarding to the extent of information they are required to share and at the same time maintain patient’s details undisclosed. Failure to attend the patients The organization and the public expect nurses to handle various problems affecting patients (John, 2010). On contrary, some nurses may fear for their safety and refuse to attend patients suffering from certain diseases such as Aids and tuberculosis among others. However, in the recent past intensive training has increased health care givers boldness and they can effectively attend all patients without risking their lives. Relationship with their colleagues According to John, 2010), graduate nurses sometimes undergo short training period that barely acquaints them with appropriate knowledge to handle different issues at the work place. They may also experience a lot of oppositions from their colleagues. Therefore, the kind of work environment in which nurses are subjected to determines their performance and attitude towards that work. As nurses get used to their work, they are assigned different roles to perform in the organization. On the other hand, nurse leaders expect the graduate nurses to be efficient and effective in their delivery of services hence, when they cannot perform to the anticipations of the organization; graduate nurses become demoralized (Daly et.al (2005). As a result, inexperienced nurses make decisions by their own even in situations where they are uncertain of the outcome hence endangering the lives of the patients. Nature of the Patients’ problems Workers in any organization have diverse needs and opinions (Lachman, 2006). Graduate nurses are forced to work against their wishes by the doctors because doctors barely incorporate the opinions of the graduate nurses in decision making. This may demoralize the nurses and result to decline in their performance. Management in the healthcare organizations should ensure they offer a room to listen to the opinions and desires of the nurses and other workers in order to ensure they make them identify with their organizations. Pressure from doctors Sometimes nurses are forced to engage in practices that are contrary to their beliefs (Daly et.al (2005). For example, some nurses are forced to assist clients to carry out illegal activities such as abortion. Those who fail to comply with the requirements of the seniors may be considered as deviants and sometimes rated low in their work performances. Even in situations where nurses’ requests are granted, they may be required to take care of clients after the abortion process hence this may force them to go against their beliefs. At the work place, nurses would anticipate collaborative workers and clients who can appreciate their services (John, 2010). In some cases, patients turn out to be rude and will request nurses to do what they want and not what the nurses feel is the right thing to do. There is also a lot of opposition from the family members and friends who may fail to give them moral support in their careers and practices. The nurse leaders rarely give junior nurses as opportunity to make their own decisions (Lachman, 2006). The hustle of dealing with complicated cases of the clients and huge workload may cause fatigue among the nurses while other have to leave their jobs and even sometimes change their careers completely. Therefore, nurses should be prepared to deal with such situations at their work places. Cultural and religious differences It is a common practice for the nurses to encounter patients who have different backgrounds from theirs (Daly et.al, 2005). In such situations, some nurses may engage in discriminatory malpractices whereby showing favoritism to those clients who share their beliefs and social, political or economic backgrounds. This makes some of the clients feel neglected while others may succumb to their problems and end up losing their lives. Therefore, nurses should observe values for human lives and uphold human being with respect and dignity they deserve irrespective of their background and status (John, 2010). Nurses should always do what is right to all their clients. Conclusion The first period of employment or in career as a nurse, the employees are inexperienced and expect to make numerous mistakes in their practices. They need accommodative nurse leaders and workmates or peer members to assist them adjust to their work practices. Doctors do not adequately involve nurses in decision making, while at other times nurses are left to make decision on their own hence jeopardizing the live of patients. Other factors such a resistance from patients and cultural differences result to conflicts of interest and affect their service delivery. At the work place, nurses may fail to collaborate with their colleagues hence resulting to inadequate delivery of service. References Lachman, V., D. (2006). Applied Ethics in Nursing. Springer, New York. Daly, J., Speedy, S., Jackson D., Lambert, V. A. & Lambert, C., E. (2005). Professional Nursing: Concepts, Issues, and Challenges. Springer, New York. John, M., S. (2010). Moral Courage in Healthcare: Acting Ethically Even in the Presence of Risk; Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 15(3). Read More