Ethical Drift In Nursing Profession

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• Value and Ethics Ethical Drift Ethical drift is when an individual, groups or organization start acting against of ethical behavior. (Kleinman, 2006). Ethical drift may occur gradually and without premeditated consciousness. It may occur unconsciously without people realizing that they have changed their formal ethical standards, (Kleinman, 2006). I have observed ethical drift occurring in the insurance sector where a chronic patient paid some amount of money to an insurance broker's account to get life insurance for the same premium as healthy persons. The strategy that could have addressed the ethical drift mentioned in this analysis is recognizing the need for change and maintaining a vigilant awareness of professional boundaries (Kleinman, …show more content…

Veracity is grounded concerning persons and concepts of autonomy. Truth-telling allows a person to make full rational choices (Weiss & Tappen, 2015, p. 51). The nurse’s function telling the truth may not be complicated, but deciding how much truth to say may be very challenging. For example, the act of giving placebo medication is an example of when telling the truth does more significant harm than good. Accountability Accountability is taking responsibility for actions done. When providing care to patients, healthcare services providers are accountable for the patient-centered care (Weiss & Tappen, 2015, p. 57). As a nurse in charge of a task, we can be called to account for the outcomes, especially if something goes wrong. Moreover, we need to know that as a nurse we are accountable when we delegate tasks to others, such as nursing assistants. For example, if I delegate a job to a nurse assistant, I have to make sure that the nurse assistant who does the work can do it and that this person is under my constant supervision References Weiss, S. A, & Tappen, R. M. (2015). Essentials of nursing leadership and management: (6th Ed). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis