Nursing - Ethical Dilemma - Essay Example

Nursing - Ethical Dilemma The nursing code of ethics is a guide that is employed while carrying out responsibilities of nursing so as to ensure that there is consistency in the quality of nursing care and the profession’s ethical obligations (www.nursingworld.org). Nurses have the responsibility of providing quality nursing care to patients at all levels. I agree with the student on this issue since the code of ethics for nurses who are registered forms the foundation for ethical nursing practices. It gives a provision to guidance for behaviors, responsibilities, ethical relationships and decision-making. It gives a platform for self-evaluation and a basis from which nurses can call for sound work environments that sustain the delivery of competent, compassionate, ethical, and safe care (Guido, 2006). I consent with student J that nursing values and responsibilities ethically, require nurses to be answerable for their practice and account for their actions. Nurses are also expected to preserve dignity by recognizing and respecting the inherent worth of every person. They are expected to respect and promote informed decision-making by recognizing, respecting, and promoting an individual’s right to be informed and make decision. Another value that a nurse is expected to portray is the promotion of health and well-being by working with people so as to facilitate their attainment of highest possible level of well-being and health (American Nurses Association, 2009). Nurses are in a setting of access to health information of individuals. It is expected of them to maintain confidentiality and privacy by safeguarding community, family, and individual information obtained within the professional relationship context. I am of the same opinion with student J that nurses are expected to also provide competent, safe, compassionate, and ethical care. Lastly, nurses ought to uphold justice principles by safeguarding equity and fairness, human rights, and by the promotion of public good (Guido, 2006). In view of the above highlighted ethical responsibilities, I concur with student J that nurses have an enormous responsibility in delivering nursing care to patients safely and without prejudice or passing judgment. Nurses are also confronted with ethical dilemmas; in the case of Ruth, she declines her nursing duties to a homosexual AIDs patient, since according to her beliefs, homosexuality is sin and AIDs is a resulting punishment for homosexual activities. The patient desperately needs nursing care that would facilitate his well-being and health, yet the best-suited nurse would not provide the required services due to her religious beliefs. As student J highlights, I am of the same opinion that the nurse appears to be quite unfair, unjust and discriminatory towards the patient since she is using the patient’s ‘sinful’ way of life to deny him services that every patient would be entitled to, regardless of their moral backgrounds. In so doing, as the student brings it out, the nurse shows an unethical act of not recognizing and respecting the inherent worth of the patient whether homosexual or otherwise. I am in concurrence with student J that since Ruth is a health care professional, it is expected of her to look intently to the issue at hand and perhaps take the education on the disease progressions and appropriate precautions (Seedhouse, 2000). . It is also true that terminating Ruth may not be the most appropriate way of solving the issue since the nurse has an outstanding level of competence and experience and if she was perhaps to be given a chance, she may have taken a different approach so that the home health agency does not lose her much needed competent services. Ruth at the other hand is entitled to her belief and convictions but at the point where her beliefs make her practice conditional, then her provision services would be at stake (Lachman, 2009). I am also in unison with student J’s consideration of giving the assignment to another nurse while keeping Ruth so as to provide her with further education. I consider this to be reasonable; since it will enable Ruth to have a better understanding of the disease and safe delivery of care is agreeable. This is could be in line with student J’s view that a health care worker, such as Ruth, is entitled to have personal ethical beliefs which may not necessarily align with the code of ethics of the nursing profession, which I am in concord with to a great extent (Lachman, 2009). I support the student’s choice of giving Ruth a second chance to acquire more knowledge about the disease and safe delivery of care to the patients, it is possible to equip Ruth with skills that will perhaps enable to look beyond prejudice and judgment that is probably causing her to decline offering services to the patient. Perhaps she will be able to separate her work of nursing care provision from being partisan to the patient’s lifestyle that she is opposed to. Every nurse will have a different approach to a dilemma in ethics. How they will choose to approach it will depend on the contexts of organizational, individual, cultural or religious beliefs that they hold. None the less, nurses are responsible for providing safe and ethical nursing care to all patients at all times (Fowler & American Nurses Association, 2008). From an ethical perspective, I concur with student J that no patient deserves to be denied nursing care regardless of their moral, social, economic, or ethnic background. All registered nurses despite being entitled to their beliefs and it ought not to be a cause for breaching the nursing ethics. Nursing managers could alleviate the situation by providing forums for staff nurses to air their concerns and be able to do so in an environment that is neither nonjudgmental nor nonthreatening (American Nurses Association, 2009). I am in consent with the student that nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas in their daily practice (Seedhouse, 2000). They often face ethical decisions as in the case of Ruth, who faces the dilemma of how to care for a patient who is homosexual yet she considers homosexual behavior to be sinful. I also support the student’s view of nurses having been educated to think in a critical manner in a way that they will be able to solve problems and make decisions efficiently. They will, therefore, need to learn as much as possible on issues surrounding cultural and religious beliefs and practices of patients under their care. I also concur with the student that nurses are expected to show respect for their patients through the use of cultural competency as they provide care for patients who are critically or terminally ill. These entail self-examination of biases and changes of attitude and the acquisition of skills to enhance the ability to the recognition of opposing practices, beliefs and cultures (Lachman, 2009). References American Nurses Association. (2009). ANA Leadership Package: Nursing Administration, Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses and Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice. Kansas: American Nurses Assn. Fowler, M. D. M., & American Nurses Association. (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses: Interpretation and application. Kansas: American Nurses Association. Guido, G. W. (2006). Legal and ethical issues in nursing. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Lachman, V. (2009). Practical use of the nursing code of ethics: part I. Medsurg Nursing: Official Journal of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, 18(1):55-7. Seedhouse, D. (2000). Practical nursing philosophy: The universal ethical code. Chichester: John Wiley. www.nursingworld.org (2012). Code of ethics for nurses. http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNur ses. Read More