Reflection on a Significant Incident from Practice

Introduction

Ethics can be defined as a system of moral conduct and principles that guide a person’s actions in regard to what are considered to be right and wrong (Marquis & Huston, 2012). Nurse managers make decisions each day about their patients, their employees and their organization. According to Marquis & Huston (2012), management is a discipline not a profession and because of that management lacks the set of norms to guide ethical decision making. Therefore managers’ decisions are made based upon the organization’s values and ethical principles. The American Nurse Association (ANA) code of ethics is a set of principles that help both nurses and nurse managers to solve ethical problems. This paper will discuss a case study involving the unsafe practice of a student nurse in clinical and the professional responsibility of the hospital and the nursing school. In addition, the Moral Decision Making Model will be applied to the ethical scenario and two ethical principles that are appropriate for this scenario will be identified.

This is a case study of a student nurse whose performance in clinical is unsafe. According to Killam, Montgomery, Luhanga, Adamic, & Carter (2010), an unsafe student is defined as a student who performances in clinical place the client or staff in either physical or emotional jeopardy. From the case study from NetCE (2014), JC is a senior nursing student who chose the intensive care unit (ICU) to complete her university nursing program requirement of a 200 hour practicum. Within the first week of the 6 week practicum, JC’s preceptor reported to the ICU nurse manager that JC dresses inappropriately for work, has an arrogant attitude towards staff members, and is always discussing the amount of money...

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...s of unsafe nursing students in clinical learning. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 7(1), 1p.

Killam, L. A., Luhanga, F., & Bakker, D. (2011). Characteristics of unsafe undergraduate nursing students in clinical practice: An integrative literature review. Journal of Nursing Education, 50(8), 437-446.

NetCE. (2014). Course # 3707 ethical decision making. Retrieved from http://www.netce.com/casestudies.php?courseid=700

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2012). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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