Ethics in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethics in Nursing - Essay Example Introduction ETHICS IN NURSING A nurse should provide care that respect human right and is sensitive to the values, customs and beliefs of all people (S. Barnun, 2008). They should at all times provide information regarding ethical issues. Nurses should also provide their patients with all the necessary information to enable them have informed consent and have freedom to accept or decline to treatment. The information given to them should be recorded and stored in a confidential manner. Nurses should be sensitive to the importance of social activities in correct concern. Ethics in nursing affects all areas of health profession which include direct care of patients, allocation of resources and finances and staff utilization. Nurses need to first cross examine their values systems in order to determine best approach and procedures to use when dealing with a patient with different values. Nurses have the challenge of dealing with patients whose values differ with theirs. Nurses should p rotect patients’ rights and interest and they should therefore make decisions which are ethical in all manner. Understanding of these ethical principles enables a nurse to make appropriate decisions in line of duty, given that in their daily work they deal with issues of moral and ethical nature (Beucham, 2008). Nonmaleficence is always considered a basic task of all nurses. This involves willingness to cause no harm such as physiological, social and even spiritual to the patient. Through this principle a nurse is able to evaluate whether the treatment given will lead to more harm or whether it will help the patient. This enables them to decide on the best treatment approach. The treatment offered should not cause excessive pain, should not be expensive and should be convenient. During treatment the nurse is obliged to giving the patient enough information on consequences, side effects and overall cost of the treatment. The nurse should consider all the potential and benefits of treatment or research and they should work and act carefully, considering the likely risks. This principle carries more weight compared to beneficence as it’s expected that a nurse should be sure of not doing any harm before he can be justified to promote clients legitimate interests. The nurse way of defining harm may differ with that of patient or community and hence should reflect on many definitions and meaning of harm. Veracity Fromer (2010) argues that this is a moral principle that underlies the thought to confide in and fiduciary relationship. This involves being truthful in informing the patients in concern to their health needs and this therefore enables them to make a choice and increase their decision making. Veracity is regarded as a key principle to the existence of trust which is fundamental in advancing the relationship between the nurse and the patient. This furthermore makes the data –gathering procedure easier and reduces the likelihood of nurses giving holistic care which do not meet the nursing goals. To determine the amount of information to give to a patient, clinical judgment is required to avoid giving the patient more than necessary information. There is a great challenge in situations where veracity has some implication in attending to patients from backgrounds where he or she is not allowed to know how