HCS 545 Ethical Self Assessment

Ethical Self-Assessment
Mark Dirschel
HCS/545
April 28, 2014
Shawna Butler

Ethical self-Assessment
Regardless of how well a health care provider believes his or her practice to be of an exemplary quality, there will remain over time room for improvement - improvement in assessment, empathy, understanding, care, technology and a host of other aspects. To not recognize this places a health care worker at risk, not only within the boundaries and expectations of who that person is as a provider but also of stagnation with an eventual push toward obsolescence. It is one thing to further one’s sense of the parameters of one’s profession and yet, without the ability to honestly reflect upon one’s sense of duty to humanity within the context of professional decision making, it is only a matter of time before conflicts will arise.
Self-Assessment

Is it a fair assumption to say that people decide to enter nursing in order to help their fellow humans in some way? Let us begin with that postulate. Regardless of whether the internal vision one has is the cherry-cheeked child, the frail old man or the unfortunate soul who happened to succumb to one of life’s unfair moments – nurses by and large enter the field to help and to care for and to assuage pain. Part of one’s self-assessment has to do with how they will fathom or execute their duties when someone vile or abhorrent enters their sphere of care. For example – the molester who has violated the cherry-cheeked youth or the drunk with the bloody knuckles who beats the elderly man or even the rapist who was stabbed while perpetrating that vile act on the woman three rooms down. The examples are extreme. Sometimes life is