Ethical Decision Making of a Nurse

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Nurses are face with numerous ethical dilemmas each day and if theses ethical situation are not handled in a professional and ethical manner there can be severe consequences for both the nurse and the patient. When nurses are face with theses ethical dilemmas, they have a decision to make. Therefore, what does the nurse do when decision-making involves ethical dilemmas? So, has a nursing student, I have chosen to put myself in the role of a health care provider such as a nurse. It was my first day of clinical rotation and the client that I was assigned to, was due for a bath. I was not comfortable giving the patient a bath a lone, so I ask for assistance from one of my colleagues. The client was a male who was shy and soft spoken. While undressing the client, I overheard a patient and her family arguing. She wants to refuses life support and the family says they want everything done. She is competent individual, who as cancer breast and had gone through many round of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and yet the cancer is still spreading. She is experiencing side effect from the treatment, like vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness and fatigue. The nurse who was in the room with the client and her family, just said he will give them some time to converse the situation, then come back later to see what they had agreed on.

The state of affairs in question presents a dilemma in terms of nursing practice.

According to Kozier et al (2010), moral “relating to right and wrong” (p. 300). From the moral aspect of this situation, it was wrong of the nurse to leave the client and her family arguing without providing the necessary information to put the client and her family at ease. In this case, the nurse is not takin...

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...care. It is not easy to prevent unjust practice in health care facilities, because each individual deal with each circumstances differently. All we can do is continuously teach nurses that the patient come first and our job is to advocate for client’s right to autonomy, respect, privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and access to appropriate information. Practice in accordance with the Nursing Profession Act and its regulations and bylaws, the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Code of Ethics, principles, statements, guidelines or documents. Nurse most also responds to and reports to appropriate person, when there is a situation, which may be adverse for clients or health care providers, including, incompetence, misconduct and incapacity. In conclusion, you should act as and role model for student nurses, colleagues and others, by doing the ethical thing.

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