Miss Evers' Boys - Movie Review Example

Ethics Reaction Discussion Board: Miss Evers BoysIntroductionCreated in 1997, Miss Evers' Boys is a film that captures the conflict that may often exist between nursing practice and government regulations. Government policies compel the nurse in the film to defy their ethical principles while the actions of the single nurse in the film shows that she understands the nursing ethics, and she strives to maintain them even in the grim instances. The fact that the story in the film is true and is an adaptation of the Tuskegee experiment makes the ethical issues it raises of immense importance to the practice since it shows the possibility of a government forcing nurses to act against their wishes.

The nurses and doctors who ran the experiment defined fundamental codes of ethics in nursing whose primary objective is to minimize the harm caused by either the patients or the nurses in the practice. The American Nurses Association explains that a nurse has a primary commitment to the patients and works to protect the rights, safety and health of the patient. In the film, the government forces the nurses to defy such basic ethical provision as they run the inhumane experiments on unsuspecting subjects.

Despite the laws that protect the experiment, Eunice Evers shows compassion and cares for the patients. The actions of the nurses conform to the ethical provisions of the practice. Doctors treat while nurses care for the patients. She strives to do this by showing compassion and caring for the subjects who endure immense pain while receiving no treatment for their disease. Nurses provide both physical and psychological needs of the patients. They do this in different ways including the consolation of the patients.

The nurse in the film acknowledges her inability to treat the subjects. She further understands her inability to overturn a government policy that safeguards the experiment. She, therefore, turns to consolation the patients a feature that lessens their pain.The health care system is a fundamental aspect of any government. The government, therefore, formulates the policies that introduce and sustain different programs. Tuskegee experiment was such a program that caused immense conflicts within the nursing fraternity, as they had to disregard the nursing ethics.

The actions of the nurse in the film conformed to the ethical standards in nursing in a number of ways. She strives to uphold the integrity required in the practice by caring for the subjects in the study (Donald, 2001). She cleans their environment and consoles the patients often responding to most of their physical and psychological needs. The consolation restores hope to the patients thereby lessening their pain.However, some of her actions show cowardice and are in defiance of the ethical dictates.

Nurses have the accountability, authority and responsibility to make decisions and act in a manner consistent to the promotion of health and provision of optimal care. As such, the nurse owed her patients the truth. She could have encouraged them to seek treatment elsewhere. She instead does not tell them the truth but consoles and cares for them. In retrospect, the case portrayed in the film shows a situation where a nurse is willing to preserve the nursing ethics, but the government policies that run the health care system in the country compels her to defy them (Reverby, 2001).

ReferenceDonald, H.J. (2001). Lessons Taught by Miss Evers' Boys: The Inadequacy of Benevolence and the Need for Legal Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Research. Journal of Law and Health, Vol. 15:147-163. Reverby, S. M. (2001). More Than Fact and Fiction: Cultural Memory and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 22-28.