Ethics Question in Nursing - Essay Example

Topic One
Ethics is needed as it serves as a guiding light to the daily lives of all people. It tells whether an action is right or wrong. It pertains to what actions are essential as it came from the Greek word ethics which means habit. The same concept is usually interchanged with morality which is concerned with the right and wrong intention. It came from the Latin word morales which means social norms (Kerridge, Lowe, and McPhee, 2007, p. 1).

In practicing professions, ethics is needed to guide the practitioners and prevent any mistakes that may deem detrimental to fellow professionals, clients, and themselves. With the pursuit of perfection in the chosen specialization, a code of ethics is put into place.

In general, all of the three codes have the same ethical principles in terms of respecting the patients and fellow professionals, promoting health, continuously enhancing health assistance skills, respecting privacy, and protecting the well-being of the patients. Each profession just differs from one another in terms of elaboration of the principles and the way the professionals practice their careers.

Another comparison can be done between the nursing code of ethics and the Nightingale Pledge in which the latter is a modified Hippocratic Oath. The pledge had been modified to match the modern changes until the code of ethics was written based on the pledge. It is considered that Nightingale's pledge is specific, personal, and limited in terms of content than the nursing code of ethics (Zwemer, 1995, p. 113). The original pledge has more differences from the code since the revised pledge was closer to the code when it comes to meaning. Also, the Code of Ethics is addressed objectively unlike the pledge which is subjective. It is also noticeable that the original pledge used some words that are not very much used today as the words solemnly, maintain, deleterious, committed, and many more (Zwemer, 1995, p. 113). To sum up the differences between the pledge and the code, there are two important points. First, the Code focuses on the professional behavior of the nurse, while the pledge includes the life outside of the profession in the words of the pledge stated as “….to pass my life in purity” and “will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous,” (Zwemer, 1995, p. 113). Second, the pledge mentioned specific responsibility in the words “….to aid the physician in his work,” (Zwemer, 1995, p. 114) unlike the Code which avoided the specific responsibility.

Topic Two
The situation in topic two revolves around Ms. Helen Heyn who was terminally ill due to HIV infection that led to the development of “multicentric lymphoma of the brain, cytomegalic inclusion retinitis, and disseminated Kaposi’s sarcoma of the thigh and groin that was treated with irradiation,” (Veatch, Haddad, and English, 2009, p. 76). With her condition, the hospice doctor named Erwin Billings suggested that she should be transferred to Hurley for treatment. According to the receiving physician Dr. Christine Vaughn, anticoagulants can help the patient with her deep vein thrombosis instead of performing a surgery that can lead to fatal damage to her lungs.

In deciding upon the condition of the patient, the concepts of autonomy, beneficence, justice, and Catholic moral tradition must all be considered. Autonomy in the context of the topics is about giving freedom to patients to handle themselves especially if they are capable of doing so (Bassett and Bassett, 2004, p. 57) while beneficence is considered as “the moral duty to do good and maximize good,” (Peate, 2010, p. 27). Catholic moral tradition is another concept as the way of living deeply rooted in history in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Ms. Heyn must be able to decide on what treatment she may need for her illness as the doctors must present the whole situation to her without any hesitation. Allowing her to decide gives her the autonomy to take responsibility with the assistance of the health care providers. The doctors may advise her of what can be beneficial to her in terms of physical recovery and removal of the disease. All advantages and disadvantages of surgery and anticoagulants must be laid down.