Ethics of Nursing – Nursing is a profession within the healthcare sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other healthcare providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses practice in many specialisms with differing levels of prescriber authority.
Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurses are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings depending on training level. In the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.
Nurses develop a plan of care, working collaboratively with physicians, therapists, the patient, the patient’s family, and other team members, that focus on treating illness to improve quality of life. Nurses may help coordinate the patient care performed by other members of an interdisciplinary healthcare team such as therapists, medical practitioners, and dietitians. Nurses provide care both interdependently, for example, with physicians, and independently as nursing professionals.
Ethics of Nursing
Q. Define ethics?
Q. What do you mean by ethics?
Answer:
Definition of Ethics:
Ethics are the rules or principles that governs conduct. They deal with what is good and bad with moral duties and obligations. The word ethics is derived from the Greek work “Ethos” which means customs or guiding beliefs. Ethics are characteristics of a profession and are called as a “code”. Ethics is a term with many meanings. Simply stated ethics is concerned with how people ought to act and how they ought to be in relation with others.
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.
Q. What are the types of ethics?
Q. Write down the types of ethics.
Answer:
Types of Ethics:
There are mainly three types of ethics-
A. Bioethics: Bioethics as encompassing a number of fields and disciplines grouped broadly under the rubric “the life sciences”.
B. Clinical ethics: Clinical ethics is that branch of bioethics literally concerned with ethical problems “at the bedside,” that is, ethical concerns that arise within the context of caring for actual patients, wherever they are found.
C. Nursing ethics: Nursing ethics, which is a subset of bioethics, is the formal study of ethical issues that arise in the practice of nursing and of the analysis used by nurses to make ethical judgments.
Q. What are the ethical principles in nursing?
Q. Mention the ethical principles of a nurse.
Answer:
Ethical Principles in Nursing
Ethical principle actually controls professionalism nursing practice much more than to ethical theories. Principles encompass basic premises from which rules are developed. Principle is the moral norms that nursing as a profession both demands and services to implement to everyday clinical practice.
Ethical principles that the nurse should consider when making decision are as follows-
1. Respect for person
2. Respect for autonomy
3. Respect for freedom
4. Respect for beneficence (doing good)
5. Respect for maleficence (avoiding harm to others)
6. Respect for veracity (truth telling)
7. Respect for justice (fair and equal treatment)
8. Respect for rights
9. Respect for fidelity (fulfilling promises)
10. Confidentiality (protecting privileged information)
Q. What are the purposes of nursing ethics?
Q. State the purposes of code of conducts in nursing.
Answer:
Purposes of Code of Ethics:
The purposes of the Code of Ethics for Nurses are:
1. Identify the fundamental ethical standards and values to which the nursing profession is committed, and that are incorporated in other endorsed professional nursing guidelines and standards of conduct
2. Provide nurses with a reference point from which to reflect on the conduct of themselves and others
3. Guide ethical decision-making and practice, and
4. Indicate to the community the human rights standards and ethical values it can expect nurses to uphold.
Q. What do you mean by code of ethics?
Answer:
Code of Ethics:
Professional codes of ethics are a system of rules and principles by which that profession is expected to regulate its members and demonstrate its responsibility to society.
Q. What are the codes of ethics for nurses?
Q. Write down the professional code of ethics of nursing?
Q. Describe the nursing ethics
Answer:
Professional Code of Ethics of Nursing:
The ethics of nursing provides professional standards for nursing activities which protect the nurse and the patient. The international code of nursing ethics is given below
1. The fundamental responsibility of a nurse is to conserve life and to promote health. Every nurse as a teacher of health by example
2. A nurse must be adequately prepared to practice nursing and be willing to continue to learn new ideas by reading and attending meetings
3. The nurse must learn to respect authority
4. The nurse must carry out the doctors order accurately and sustain confidence in the
doctor, and all members of the health team
5. The nurse should report any unusual condition or symptoms to the doctor or in-charge nurse.
6. The religious beliefs of a patient should be respected.
7. The nurse should hold confidential all information given to her.
8. When a patient requires continued nursing care, the nurse must remain with the patient until adequate relief is available
9. The nurse has obligation to give conscientious service and in return is entitled to just remuneration.
10. A patient should always be called by his full name
11. Punctuality is very important for every nurse.
12. Obedience is very important in observing rules and regulation
13. Every nurse must have respected for authority and for rules and regulation
14. Economy is important for all nurses to practice
Q. Discuss the professional codes of ethics for nurse according to International Council of Nurse (ICN). (DU-20)
Answer:
Code for Nurses by International Council of Nurses (ICN);
The ICN further states that the need for nursing is universal. Inherent in nursing is respect for life, dignity and the rights of humanity. It’s unrestricted by considerations of nationality, race, colour, age, der, politics or social status. The code has five principal elements that outline the standards of ethical duct.
A. Nurses and people
- The nurse’s primary responsibility is to people who require nursing care.
- The nurse, in providing care, respects the beliefs, values and customs of the individual.
- The nurse holds in confidence personal information and uses judgment in sharing this information.
B. Nurses and practice
- The nurse carries personal responsibility for nursing practice and maintaining competence by continual learning.
- The nurse maintains the highest standards of nursing possible within the reality of a specific situation.
- The nurse uses good judgment in relation to individual competence when accepting and delegating responsibilities.
- The nurse, when acting in a professional capacity, should at all times maintain standards of personal conduct that would reflect credit upon the profession.
C. Nurses and society
- The nurse shares with other citizens the responsibility for initiating and supporting actions to meet the health and social needs of the public.
D. Nurses and co-workers
- The nurse sustains a co-operative relationship with colleagues in nursing and other fields.
- The nurse takes appropriate actions to safeguard the patient when their care is endangered by a colleague or another person.
E. Nurses and the profession
- The nurse plays the major role in determining and implementing desirable standards of nursing practice and nursing education.
- The nurse is active in developing a core of professional knowledge.
- The nurse, acting through the professional organization, participates in establishing and maintaining equitable social and economic working conditions in nursing.
Q. What are the importance of study ethics in nursing education?
Q. Write down the importance of ethics in nursing profession.
Answer:
Importance of Study Ethics in Nursing Education:
- Nurses will encounter ethical problems frequently in their work.
- Ethics is central to nursing.
- Multidisciplinary input is important
- Ethical knowledge is necessary for professional acceptance.
- Ethical reasoning is necessary for nursing to be taken seriously by other discipline.
- Ethical proficiency is essential for providing holistic care.
- Nurses should be advocates for patients.
- Studying ethics will help to make better decisions.
- Perceive the difference between good and evil, right and wrong.
- Understand abstract moral principles.
- Reason and apply moral principles to make decisions, weigh alternatives and plan ways to achieve goals.
- Decides and choose freely.
- Act according to choice (this assumes both the power and the capacity to act).
- Morals refer to established rules in situations where a decision about right and wrong must be made.
- If morals reflect the ‘is’ of human behavior, then ethics is a term used to reflect the “should’ of human behavior.
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