Ethical and Moral Issues in Nursing - Free Essay Example

Introduction

Ethics is one of the branches of philosophy that deals with the evaluation of human action. Ethics originated from the Greek word "ethos" to mean character, customary uses, and customs. It encompasses a process of identifying the right conduct from the wrong one (Guido, 2014). Ethics can also be defined as the assumptions or principles underpinning how people or groups of people conduct themselves. Ethics is more concerned with attitudes and motives and how these attitudes are related to the individual. The majority of us see ethics as dealing mainly with morality assumptions, viewing ethics from the perspective of what is desirable rather than the undesirable (Guido, 2014). Therefore, morality is the norms about desirable and undesirable conduct, which are largely shared, thus forming a stable but incomplete social consensus.

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Personal Assumptions

Ethics and morals are envisioned as interchangeable. A deliberate way of viewing morals encompasses the concept that morals are personal assumptions seized from life encounters, peer relationships, family, law, religion, and culture. Generally, morals are considered appropriate several routine decisions, but more inadequate when dealing with more complex challenges experienced in a clinical practice setting. The difference between ethics and morals is that ethics describe principles or conduct, whereas morals put restrictions on what to be considered right (Guido, 2014). Thus, ethics gives the outline for putting conduct into action. Ethical behavior entails how people communicate and relate with one another daily.

Ethics is the foundation of nursing. Nursing has a different concern about the welfare of the injured individuals, the sick, the vulnerable, and social justice (Guido, 2014). It is mainly concerned with giving nursing care to the people and society at large. Nursing entails preventing diseases, alleviating suffering, promoting and protecting, and restoring health in patients, families, and groups. Therefore, those individuals who train as nurses are expected to adhere to the moral norms and ideal of the profession and embrace them as part of nursing. Nurses offer services to those seeking health and those receiving treatment, learners and instructors, in communities and healthcare settings. Similarly, nurses provide services like direct caregivers to the patients, work as educators, researchers, administrators, and policy developers only to benefit patients in health care facilities (Guido, 2014).

Description

In a real-life situation, some nurses fail to adhere to ethics and morals while handling patients, whereas others respond to the rule of ethics. In my case, I once witnessed a physician making a family call during a lunch break while there was a casualty in the emergency room.

Reflection

I was disappointed with the nurse; I expected him to react very fast and save the victim's life. Unfortunately, he failed, and the patient past away. How nurses communicate and respond to the patient's call matters a lot to their health. As a professional caregiver, one should never attempt to talk harshly or use abusive language while handling a patient. The nurse argued that it was a lunch break, and everything has got its time, he decided to wait until lunch break. The lunch break ended, and when he came to attend to the victim, it was too late, and the patient passed on. As a caregiver, one should always commit himself and ensure patients are attended to immediately and avoid procrastinating when to attend to others.

Morals and Ethics

We consider values as personal theories concerning reality and worth of thoughts, behavior, and objects in this context. Values give individuals about what is right and what is wrong and create a way of conduct for a living (Savage, 2017). Values comprise societal norms, religion, family orientation, and as one grows, old values tend to change. Ultimately, values assist individuals in determining the actions they take in every day's life. Caregivers require value clarification to understand their value system's nature and undertake its vast influence on an individual—usually, our previous experiences, education, and environment fashions our values and ethics. Health caregivers should be able to identify and understand other’s values and ethics so that he/she become in a position to different people with different values and ethics because values change with time (Savage, 2017).

As a health care provider, I will commit myself fully to the patient, be it an individual, family, and community at large. I will first identify what the patient wants to incorporate individual thought into care practices and ensure collaboration with the internal and external forces to achieve the best patient care. The nurse must comprehend every privacy guideline to identify and take care of the patients. Good nurses advocate for, promote, and protect the patient's health, safety, and rights (Savage, 2017).

Conclusion

Nurses should always form groups and organize committees to share and evaluate values, better performance, and professional continuation. In these groups, caregivers will acquire knowledge, experience, and skills to handle patients appropriately and properly manage healthcare facilities. On the other hand, nurses should show care for themselves. A professional nurse should possess self-regard to healthcare activities and maintain safety within the healthcare setting and at home (Ameican Nurses Association, 2001). It is important nurses work in shifts and stay at work within recommended hours. In health facilities where nurses work for more than the recommended hours, they feel overworked and suffer fatigue, thus render poor services to the patients.

References

American Nurses Association, Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, Washington, D.C.: American Nurses Publishing, 2001

Guido, G. W. (2014). Legal and ethical issues in nursing (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Savage, T. A. (2017). Ethical issues in school nursing. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(3), 79. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COIiWyUEpOM