Ethics in Nursing and healthcare

Introduction

Ethics are declarations of what is right or wrong usually presented as a system of value behaviors and beliefs with the purpose of governing conduct to ensure protection of an individual’s rights (Catalano, 2003). A code of ethics is a written list of a profession’s values and standards of conduct, which provides a framework for decision making for the profession. There are some important ethical principles which include autonomy, justice, fidelity, beneficence nonmaleficence, veracity, standard of best interest, and obligations.

Autonomy:

Catalano (2003) said, “Autonomy is the right of self-determination, independence, and freedom” (p. 118). The individual patient has the right to make health-care decisions for himself or herself, even if the health-care provider does not agree with those decisions.

Justice:

Justice is defined as “the obligation to be fair to all people"(Catalano, 2003, p.118). The individuals have the right to be treated equally regardless of race, sex, marital status, medical diagnosis, social standing, economic level, or religious belief. It is important to protect human right to have equal access to healthcare.

Fidelity:

Fidelity is the obligation of an individual to be faithful to make commitments to others or organizations which support the concept of accountability. “In health care, fidelity includes the professional’s faithfulness or loyalty to agreements and responsibilities accepted as part of the practice of the profession” (Catalano, 2003, p.119). For example, healthcare teams try their best to save the life of a patient in critical condition.

Beneficence:

The primary goal of health care is doing good for clients, which is more than providing technically competent care  that  health-care provider take a holistic approach to the client, including the client’s beliefs, feelings, and wishes as well as those of the client’s family and significant others (Catalano, 2003).

Nonmaleficence:

Health-care providers are to oblige with the practices which do no harm to their clients, either intentionally or unintentionally. For example, doctors and nurses must follow strict aseptic technique in performing surgical and other invasive procedure, to avoid the risk of infection.

Veracity:

Veracity is the principle of truthfulness which requires the healthcare provider to tell the truth and not to deceive or mislead clients intentionally (Catalano, 2003).

Standard of best interest:

 The standard of best interest is on the basis of what health-care providers and the family decide is best for that individual, and it is very important to consider the individual patient’s wishes and what matter most to the patient.

Why Ethics are important for nurses and healthcare professionals

Nurses and healthcare professionals have responsibility to protect the rights of the patients. Patients have the right to receive safe and quality healthcare, regardless of race, rel

igion and socioeconomic status. Moreover, patients have the right to get equal access to healthcare and the right to be treated with respect and culturally sensitive care. Protecting those patients’ right is an important part the professional ethics of healthcare providers.  

Adherent to ethical practice is not only important for protecting patients’ rights, it is either important to maintain professional image. Violating patient’s rights by misconducts and unethical practices damage professional dignity. For instance, nurses do not show respect to the patients who are the ordinary persons, and they tend to provide considerate care only to patients who are very important persons or related to one of the very important persons. For this instance, the public observe nurses as immoral and impolite, with which perception of the public devalues nurses, leading to damage professional image of nursing.

Furthermore, obligation to ethical principles is very important for improvement of national economy and quality of life among citizens. In terms of ethical principle of beneficence, nurses and healthcare providers have to give good care or high quality of care to all patients. Likewise, in terms of ethical principle or nonmalefficience, nurses and healthcare providers have to give safe care which contributes no harm to patients. When every healthcare personals are practicing according to the ethical principles, patients will receive safe and high quality care, leading to reduce hospital stay and costs of medical and nursing care. Quality and safe care either contribute to improve health status of the consumers, their satisfaction and quality of life.

Education preparation for nurses

Nurses’s knowledge and skill are important forces that contribute to the power to influence patient care in an ethical manner and improve competency (Parker, 2007). Nursing education should be incorporated with ethical principles, ethical theories, application to analysis of barriers to ethical practice and exploration of creative approach to challenge these barriers. Educator should integrate suitable methods of teaching such as problem-based learning, group discussion and role modelling. Reflective model could be utilised to allow students critically reflect on nursing action and facilitate ethical decision making.

Implication on education is crucial for the nurses to gain knowledge on ethics from on-going training and organizational support.  According to Johnstone, Da Costa, & Turale (2004), the on-going training will give empowerment to nurses as patient advocator, improve interdisciplinary ethical decision making, and meet the needs of care givers and care recipients.

Recommendation and conclusion

The culture of nursing should change to challenge for ethical and moral issues in every day practice. Nurses need to have personal qualities and capacities such as courage, honesty, confidence and assertiveness to stand for the patients’ right as well as the rights of nurses themselves. Establishment of ethical consultation groups, and empoverment among nurses, are good strategies for improving ethical practices and addressing ethical issues. Finally, communication among health care team through multidisciplinary involvement is a good tool and increase nurse’s power to base care decision on ethical principles thus improve patient care.

References:

Catalano, J. T. (2003). Ethic in Nursing. Nursing Now! Today’s Issues, Tomorrow Trends (4^th ed.). F.A. Davis company: Philadephia

Johnstone, M. J., Costa, C. D., & Turale, S. (2004). Registered and enrolled nurses’

experiences of thical issues in nursing practice. Australian Journal of Advance Nursing, 22(1), 24-30.

Parker, F. (2007). Ethic: The power of one. Journal of Issue in Nursing, 13(1).