Throughout a nurse’s professional job, many difficult ethical and legal scenarios will occur. Since nurses are given the initial privilege of caring for people and their families, it is important to uphold certain professional requirements. The American Nursing Affiliation (ANA) Code of Medical Ethics supplies a foundation on what a health professional should carry out her specialist life. As well as the Code of Ethics, rns must also equilibrium their personal values along with legal standards to help make the best decisions for their people.
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A nurse’s first priority is to the person and featuring safe and competent care. According to the ANA (2001), Supply 1 of the Code of Integrity states “The nurse, in all professional interactions, practices with compassion and respect to get the natural dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every person, unrestricted by considerations of social or perhaps economic position, personal attributes, or the character of medical problems. (p. 1)
The health professional is bound by duty to esteem the would like of the sufferer and family in regards to end of existence decisions.
In the case of Marianne, a committee is forced to help a family produce a difficult decision regarding the existence of a dearly loved. Since the patient is unable to exhibit her desires and had simply no advance directive, the nurse has an accountability to ensure that the family is knowledgeable and educated on her treatment. The health professional needs to support the friends and family in the decision-making process and refer the family to other solutions to assist inside the decision making procedure. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, such as consulting with an ethics panel, is one resource which can be found to the family to assist inside the decision-making procedure. In addition to difficult end of lifestyle decisions, the Code of Ethics can be used to guide decisions in cases of malpractice. Provision 3 states, ” The nurse promotes, supporters for, and strives toprotect the health, security, and legal rights of the patient (ANA, 2001).
In other words, the Code of Ethics potential clients the registered nurse to address practice that is low quality and may jeopardize patient proper care. The registered nurse should adhere to policy and procedures in the facility to report this sort of behavior, but if measures are not taken to assure the honesty of medical practice then a nurse may report to outside the house agencies, such as state departments. The registered nurse also has an obligation to ensure that the correct assistance or perhaps treatment is definitely provided to support in the disadvantaged nurse’s restoration. While the Code of Values provides an important foundation where to basic behavior, any ethical decision involves an assessment of one’s pair of personal and societal ideals. According to Uustal (1993). “Nursing is a behavioral symptoms of the nurse’s value system. It is not simply a career, a career, an project: it is a ministry (p. 10).
Nurses have to be aware of their very own beliefs so that they can recognize and accept that the patient may possibly have different beliefs and philosophy. The health professional needs to interact with the patient as well as the family within a non-judgmental, caring way. The nurse should take care to never influence the patient in making alternatives based on her beliefs or perhaps what the lady believes is right. The nurse’s role is to be supportive to patients and their families in actions that are congruent together with the code of ethics. Some conflicts which may compromise the nurse’s personal beliefs may include end of life decisions, abortions or refusal of medical treatment. For example , a health professional may support pro-life decision-making but is bound to respect the patient’s desires if that they seek a legal abortion. Furthermore, a doctor needs to reverance a person’s decision to forego treatment, even if the health professional believes that that treatment represents the best option for the patient.
References
American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics to get nurses with interpretive statements. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/ethics/code/protected_nwcoe303.html. Uustal, D. (1993). Clinical ethics and beliefs: issues and insights within a changing health care environment. Educational Resources in Healthcare, doze (2), 12.
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