Ethics involves the application of principles, the acknowledged guidelines, and customs in the medical field. These values are formed from morality, which is knowing the difference between what is right and wrong. Moral concepts are the ideas that affect our thoughts, and they include freedom or love. Therefore, in nursing, a medical professional’s urge to provide care for the patients stems from a moral standpoint.
In the nursing profession, high standards of ethics are needed. Nevertheless, the application of technology, lifespans, and emerging life issues bring new ethical dilemmas. These issues challenge caregiving efficiency and include a shortage of personnel, diversity, and demands for partnership with other institutions. New graduates also experience dilemmas such as the type of medication to use, informing a patient about their condition, and asking for other doctors’ guidance. The guidelines of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of healthcare organizations require that the ethical impasses hindering patient care need to be addressed for effective healthcare delivery. Additionally, all medical professionals should be educated on the code of ethics, including the implications of their actions. While carrying out clinical activities, a nurse should develop a framework based on logically dependable values to guide in making decisions.
Bioethics resulted from situations that involve life and death crises. This includes the life support system, organ transplant, recovery and donation of tissues, and informed consent (TrainingABC, 2012). In such cases, an ethics committee must provide a solution with several different perspectives to answer all the predicaments. Bioethics is guided by principles such as beneficence and non-malfeasance. The former dictates that patients’ welfare should be taken care of, and it involves mercy, charity, and kindness. In the latter, nurses should not harm or have the intent of harming patients. Moreover, there is emotional harm whereby the clinician is insensitive to patient needs or their speech is culturally biased.
Healthcare workers should express integrity by being sincere and unselfish when performing their duties. Personal relationships with patients are a vice as they will hinder a nurse from effectively performing their duties; they may neglect other patients while focusing on one. Clinicians should refrain from acts that will taint their professionalism as they are the patients’ role models. Such acts include bribery, poor hygiene practices, disclosure of patient information, and use of drugs.
Reference
TrainingABC. (2012). Ethical issues in nursing: Introduction: Concepts, values and decision making [Video]. YouTube.