The American Nurses Association code of ethics was created as a guide to help nurses provide quality care while ensuring that all patients are protected and treated equally. Provision four of the ANA covers has three key points that emphasizes the nurse’s responsibility and obligation to his or her patient (ANA,2015, p4). The first statement touches on the nurse’s authority, accountability and responsibility. Nurses have authority in everything involving their patient’s care and are responsible and accountable for the decisions being made. For example nurses have to ensure that they are not over medicating patients narcotics as an over sedated patient cannot not participate in the decisions regarding their care. The second statement emphasizes …show more content…
In others words the decisions being made by the nurses should be justifiable and patient care centered. An example of this would be a nurse caring for a patient who is unstable and exhibiting signs of delirium. As precautionary method the nurse turned on the bed exit alarm before leaving the room. Statement three focuses on the nurse’s responsibility in her actions, judgment, and action. For example a nurse failing to set up the necessary safety guard for fall precaution for a patient who has an altered mental status or has a history of fall and due to this the patient ends up injured or failing to recognize the signs of a patient then the nurse would be held accountable. The last statement focuses on delegation of nursing activities or tasks. Nurses are responsible of performing all nursing assessments and any type of care that does not fall under the obligation of a patient care assistant or medical …show more content…
Similarly, the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics consists of four elements that state the nurse’s obligations towards the patient, people, practice, and co-workers (International Council of Nurses of Nurses (ICN), 2012). The National Student Nurses Association Codes of Ethics focuses on the students nurse conduct in the student world and in the clinical field, it also focuses on advocacy, professionalism, care, and leadership in the field (NSNA, 2017). The ICN, ANA, and NSNA Code of ethics focuses on promoting health, preventing illness, restoring health and alleviating suffering to patients in a culturally sensitive matter. All three codes stress the importance of safe guarding patient, family, and the community when their care is endangered by a healthcare professional. Similarly to the ANA and ICN codes the NSNA code of ethics also clarifies that students will refrain from performing certain skills or procedures without proper education (NSNA, 2017,p.6). These provisions or codes will help ensure patient safety and proper reporting when patient health is at
Nurses everywhere face problems and challenges in practice. Most of the challenges occur due to a struggle with the use of ethical principles in patient care. Ethical principles are “basic and obvious moral truths that guide deliberation and action,” (Burkhardt, Nathaniel, 2014). Ethical principles that are used in nursing practice include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, veracity, confidentiality, justice, and fidelity. These challenges not only affect them, but the quality of care they provide as well. According to the article, some of the most frequently occurring and most stressful ethical issues were protecting patient rights, autonomy and informed consent to treatment, staffing problems, advanced care planning, and surrogate decision making (Ulrich et. al, 2013). The ethical issue of inadequate staffing conflicts with the principle of non-maleficence.
Deontology is an ethical theory concerned with duties and rights. The founder of deontological ethics was a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Kant’s deontological perspective implies people are sensitive to moral duties that require or prohibit certain behaviors, irrespective of the consequences (Tanner, Medin, & Iliev, 2008). The main focus of deontology is duty: deontology is derived from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. A duty is morally mandated action, for instance, the duty never to lie and always to keep your word. Based on Kant, even when individuals do not want to act on duty they are ethically obligated to do so (Rich, 2008).
A code of ethics provides a standard by which nurses conduct themselves and their practice, observing ethical obligations of the profession and providing quality care. To achieve its purpose, a code of ethics must be understood, internalized, and used by nurses in all aspects of their work” (Aliakvari, 2015, p. 494).
In the code of ethics, the very first ethical principles that nurses are expected to uphold in order to exemplify that they are competent professionals are autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. That is, nurses as professionals are expected to advocate for their patients while preserving their respect and dignity and
The Code of Ethics for Nurses was created to be a guide for nurses to perform their duties in a way that is abiding with the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession and quality in nursing care. The Code of Ethics has excellent guidelines for how nurses should behave, however; these parameters are not specific. They do not identify what is right and wrong, leaving nurses having to ultimately make that decision. Ethics in nursing involves individual interpretation based on personal morals and values. Nursing professionals have the ethical accountability to be altruistic, meaning a nurse who cares for patients without self-interest. This results in a nurse functioning as a patient advocate, making decisions that are in the best interest of the patient and practicing sound nursing ethics.
According to American Nurses Association (ANA), (2010) “the nurse promotes, advocates for and strives to protect the heath, safety and right of the patient” (p. 6). Nursing responsibilities should be acted at the highest standard and must be based on legal and ethical obligations.
Registered nurses abide by a code of ethics as set forth by the American Nurses Association. Some of the ethics nurses live out are: commitment to the patient, practice with compassion and respect, accountability and responsibility for owns actions and collaborating with other health care providers (Code of Ethics for Nurses, 2015). Nurses practice the code of ethics on a routine basis by employing the six fundamental concepts established by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN).
Section 5.4, which is the preservation of integrity, suggests that nurses will inevitably have to deal with threats to their moral or professional integrity at some point in their careers. Nurses should do their best to maintain professional integrity when met with adversity, weather it be from uncooperative issuance companies, an unsound work environment, or from the patients themselves. When working in an unsound or unsafe work environment that violates law or the ANA code of ethics nurses must go through the proper channels to fix the problem. If a nurse feels that a procedure or treatment their patient is having conflicts with his or her own moral integrity and they cannot participate, the nurse must report they unwilling to tr...
The first provision states that the nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person (ANA, 2015). This is based on the respect for human dignity, which I don’t believe was incorporated with this patient. This patient was in pain, and needed medication. She depended on the health care providers to show compassion and care for her as they would any other patient. A nurse should consider the needs of every patient and help advocate for them, instead of just ignoring their wishes. Provision two states that the nurses primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population (ANA, 2015). It involves the primacy of the patient’s interest and states that the primary commitment is to the patients. Each plan of care must reflect the fundamental commitment of nursing to the dignity of the patient (ANA, 2015). I also don’t think this was implemented because when the patient came seeking medication to ease her pain, the nurse did not stand up for her. They placed a label on her saying that she was a “drug-seeker”, which is not showing dignity towards the patient. The third provision states that the nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient (ANA, 2015). The nurse did not advocate for this patient by any means.
Since you examined the number of moral issues you will face in this profession, look through the code of ethics that you chose for this assignment and explain
The ethical responsibility of nurses. Provisions 3 & 4 of the Code of Ethics states that the nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient; and the nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice; makes decisions; and takes action consistent with the obligation to promote health and to provide optimal care. (American Nurses Association, 2015)
The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses has five elements that pertain to the Principle of Autonomy. Each individual element applies to “respect individual persons” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett T, M., Garrett R. M., 2013, p.33). In Chapter 2 of the Health Care ethics: Principles and problems text, it discusses thouroghly the consent of an individual to make their own decisions regarding their health and future requests of care. As a nurse or within all heath care professions, we must treat each individual patient with care, respect, and to remain mindful to the patient regarding any aspect of their lives. In the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses, it explains ways of maintaining the empathy required in the health field. It further discusses that the respect for human dignity must be a priority, relationships to patients must remain neutral, the severity of the situation, the right to self-rule, and the professionalism that must be upheld by the nurse and their associates.
The American Nurses Association created guidelines for the profession including, a set clear rules to be followed by individuals within the profession, Code of Ethics for Nurses. Written in 1893, by Lystra Gretter, and adopted by the ANA in 1926, The Code of Ethics for Nurses details the role metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics have within the field (ANA, 2015). Moral obligation for an individual differs within professions than it does within an individual’s personal life, so the code of ethics was written to establish rules within the profession. The moral obligation to provide quality care include the fundamental principles of respect for persons, integrity, autonomy, advocacy, accountability, beneficence, and non-maleficence. The document itself contains nine provisions with subtext, all of which cannot be addressed within this paper however, core principals related to the ethical responsibilities nurses have will be
The nursing code of ethics has a very standard definition. It is the base on how nurses should guide themselves in conduct by making the right decision regarding ethical issues. According to the National Student Nurses Association “students of nursing have a responsibility to society in learning the academic theory and clinical skills needed to provide nursing care” (2003). In the clinical setting nurses have a lot of responsibilities while caring for an ill patient, they have the obligation to practice their profession with compassion, love, and respect the uniqueness of each patient, as nurses we are not supposed to deny care to a patient because of their economic status, their skin color, race, or the nature of health problems, we are here to help the people in need in particular those of susceptible populations. The NSNA states that the code of conduct is based on an understanding that to practice nursing as a student is an agreement that trust and honesty is depended on us by society. The announcement of the code provided direction for the nursing student in the personal development of an ethical foundation and not limited to the academic or clinical environment but can assist in the holistic development of a person. (National Student Nurses Association, 2003)
Ethics asses the values, morals, and principles of nurses. Legal codes or laws are rules established by our government. It’s important that nurses have a clear and comprehensive understanding of ethical and legal codes within their career. The understanding of these codes is essential for nurses to safely practice and to protect their patients. Nurses must abide by these principles or face the consequences of legal action. These principles include autonomy, utilitarianism, confidentiality, and many others. Autonomy is the agreement to respect ones right to determine a course of action, while utilitarianism is what is best for most people as defined in American Nurses Association. In order to give you a