Nursing Professional Practice, Lecture notes of Professional Communication

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ETHICAL ASPECTS

OF NURSING

PRACTICE

DEFINITIONS

 Ethics - is the term that encompasses a variety of approaches to the understanding and examination of moral living.  Morality- is the distinction and content of right and wrong.  Common morality- is considered as a consensus, widely shared and stable, about socially approved human behavior and values.

 The nurse must keep in confidence all confidential information about his/her patients.  The nurse must be a law abiding citizen  The nurse has the duty to uphold the efforts of his/her profession  The nurse must continue to develop the professional competence and assist others do the same.



The nurse must help to establish and maintain

professional standards in nursing.



The nurse must be concerned with all

legislation affecting the health care of human

beings.



The nurse does not advertise.



The nurse has the responsibility to teach

others and prevent unskilled and

unauthorized persons from performing tasks

of danger to patients

 Non maleficence: means to avoid doing harm, to remove from harm, and to prevent harm  Harm can be physical and so include pain, disability, discomfort and death but it can also be psychological and thus include mental stress

 Autonomy and consent: Principles of self determination The cardinal principles of autonomy  The right to full disclosure- the right to know  The right to privacy  (^) The right to receive care and treatment

 Privacy:  To ensure that the patient’s body is appropriate covered  To establish a culture of privacy to ensure that personal information of patients is kept as private as possible

 Confidentiality  To preserving the human dignity of patients  Discussing clients outside the clinical setting, telling friends or family about clients, or even discussing clients in the elevator with other workers violates client confidentiality and must be a voided

Accountability  Is about justifying actions, explaining why something was (or was not) done  The purpose of calling people to account for their actions is therefore to establish whether they had good enough reasons for acting in the way they did

FIDELITY

 The professional´s faithfulness or loyalty to agreements & responsibilities accepted as part of the practice of the profession

 Others include:  Courage: a nurse one must have the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty during practice.

 Compassion: one should be able to recognize the suffering of others and then take action to help  Generosity: this is the quality of being kind, understanding, and not selfish  Tolerance : this is the willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with

 self-control: as a nurse one must be in control of his or her feelings  Prudence: as a nurse one must be able to govern and discipline oneself by use of reasoning

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

A nursing practitioner must show compassion and respect for the dignity of the individual.  He or she is therefore unrestricted by economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of the disease. For example, a nurse might not be comfortable with caring for an alcoholic client. However, she is ethically obligated to provide the best and most compassionate care possible.