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Moral Issues In Nursing

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In the following essay I will explore a moral problem within today 's society. The moral problem that I will be addressing is restraints used in care settings specifically in residential care homes towards elderly persons. The reason I chose this area is because it is a growing issue within today 's society with more and more cases being reported. I also have seen restraints being used in past work environments. "Ethics is the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong". ‘It deals with such questions at all levels. Its subject consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision making. Its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong’. …show more content…

Nurses and care staff are not only responsible for their patients but also other employees, the public and the entire profession. Therefore it is important that they have a strong understanding of various ethical, legal and professional issues that they may be faced with throughout their career. There are three primary duties of care amongst several others, these are: · The duty of autonomy · Confidentiality · Duty of care to all patients These duties are accompanied by the principles of benefince (meaning doing good and acting in patients’ best interests) and non-maleficence (meaning to avoid harm). (UK Essays, 2015) Ethics in nursing focuses on the concept that nursing is collaborative, therefore patients have a basic right to bodily autonomy whenever possible, including a human rights component. The need for allowing informed consent underlies the ethical notion of autonomy, which outlines the minimum standard of behaviour accepted by the community. (UK Essays, …show more content…

From the perspective of a person within the health sector, autonomy may and may not be practical for the purposes of preventing liability from litigation and avoiding ethical criticism, especially when it 's measured against the patients’ best interests. In certain circumstances such as cases where patients don 't have the decision-making capacity, then nurses may treat the patient without consent. This type of situation is usually grounded on the principle of necessity. When professionals working within the health sector act under necessity, they must be able to prove that they did no more then what was necessary and in the best interests of the patient. This is a common problem in today 's nursing homes as many residents are not of sound mind and are unable to make decisions that affect them. A lot of residents who don 't have the decision-making capacity may also have no family members and are now 'ward of courts’. This normally means that a nurse working in the nursing home is in charge of making medical decisions relating to that specific resident. For this reason legal and ethical issues are common in health care industries, mainly within nursing practices, where nurses have daily individual contact with patients. Ethical issues are wide-ranging from organ donation, assisted suicide, withholding treatment in end of life care, or more

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In class autonomy was defined as rational individuals being permitted to be self determining. Everybody that is deemed rational has the freedom of choice, especially when it comes to their body and free will. Medical physicians need to honor the patient’s rights and confidentiality in order to prevent violation the patient’s autonomy. To do this the physician always needs to tell the truth, list all options and potential outcomes, and know that the patient has the right to say no. Patient’s can’t be forced into treatment or misinformed.

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Principlism is an ethical theory applied particularly in relation to bioethics, divided in four prima facie: respect for autonomy, non maleficence, beneficence and justice. Respect for autonomy results in freedom to make choices without external control which is expected to be both accepted in binding in others (McLean, 2009). In this essay i am going to discuss the person’s autonomy and the role of the health care professional regarding the implementation of an advanced care directive including the features of a valid consent and how that relates to an advanced care directive, the importance of respecting a patients choices and the exceptions to this, when paternalism is ethically justified. These concepts will all be analysed from the perspective

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Patients in healthcare settings require all caregivers to work cooperatively on their behalf to provide excellent, high-quality care and treatment on a consistent basis. This process is instrumental in shaping a healthcare dynamic which focuses on the needs of patients and which supports the continued growth and development of activities in the practice setting to meet these requirements. However, nurse case managers may face ethical challenges when advocating for their patients when payers may view the circumstances in a different light. It is the responsibility of all case managers to make decisions which are ethically responsible and which provide patients with the best possible care under specific conditions. They play a critical role in this process and must advocate for rather

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Ethics of healthcare depends on 4 moral standards and how they are utilised; autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. Autonomy, which means self-governance, is the rule for regarding the privileges of a person to settle on a choice for them self, and respecting that decision. In healthcare this implies regarding a patient's choice on treatments, regardless of the possibility that it could bring about damage or demise to themselves. Autonomy is about self-rule, control free, without impact or influence from any other person, and is tied in with making an educated and un-forced choice about their care and medicines, based from their qualities and inclinations. Alongside autonomy is the principle of justice, which incorporates reasonableness

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This paper will analyze broader healthcare ethic principles and laws dealing with non-maleficence (where a physician’s obligation of first, do no harm’ to a patient), beneficence (providing benefits and balancing them against risks to a patient of specific treatment) have influenced the ACHE’s code of ethics. Moreover, this analysis will examine how the ACHE’s code of ethic closely aligns with my ethics assessment (specifically with regards to, ‘respecting the practices and customs of a diverse patient protecting the patients right to autonomy’, ‘ensuring adherence to ethics-related policies and practices affecting patients and staff ’) (ACHE's Ethics Self-Assessment). In addition, this paper will examine how the ACHE’ code of ethics was established

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Autonomy is when patients have the right to make decisions about their medical care without a health and social care professional trying to influence the decision. (Medicine net) For example, gaining consent or informal agreement of the patient before any treatment takes place. The principle may at times cause problems when patients exercise their autonomy by refusing life-saving treatments. Another barrier to patient autonomy is if one is being forced into a decision.

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Autonomy is a complex term with philosophical, humanistic, personal and social aspects. In terms of patient autonomy has been characterized as the core legal and ethical principle behind all human interaction in health care. But individuals understand autonomy in their personal way that reflects the perception of the concept which is distilled from the individual mix of experiences, values, ethics, stereotypes and other cultural factors. Although respect for patient autonomy is a basic ethical principle of care, patient autonomy a multidisciplinary company and various viewpoints produced a number of definitions. Another important proper patient informed consent.

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Autonomy is defined as the freedom to make choices about issues that affect one’s life, free from lies, restraint, or coercion (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p 60). As this case study unravels itself it’s clear that autonomy is the ethical dilemma at hand. It is ethical wrong for health care providers not to obtain informed consent directly from the patient or in other words acting paternalistically, which in return violates the patients’ autonomy. If Linda were deemed incompetent, her autonomy rights would be removed, but since the patient decisional capacity is seen as intact all treatment should be consented to by her and her only, not the mother or any health care provider.

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By autonomy being one of the four principles of bioethics, it means that in the healthcare field, patients have the right to make decisions based on how they feel and what they know. This is where informed consent

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In the module 4 the article, “ Ethics: Ethical Challenges in the Care of Elderly Persons” was very iinformative to read. According to Ludwick & Silva (2003), ethics is a important part when taking care of older adults. Nurses should acknowledge and respectful of patient’s wishes when making decision regarding the interventions need to be implement in taking care of the older adults. Agesim play a very important role when it comes to decision

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Nurses face ethical dilemma in everyday situation about the advance directives and end of life care decisions. Nurses needs to educate the patients that advance directive can be done whether younger or older age, whether one healthy or sick. Another necessary information is that advance directives can be changes at any time according to their wish. If the medical record states the patient has an advance directive, make sure a copy of the patient's advance directive is in the patient's medical record. Also make sure that if a patient has more than one type of advance directive, copies of all of the patient's advance directive are in the medical record.

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This means the nurse allows the patient to autonomously have a say in how they are treated, ensuring their care is centred around them and the decisions they make if they are deemed to have capacity to make the decision (Griffiths &Tengah,

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The principle of autonomy allows the patient to make decisions about their own health care options. This includes selecting no treatment even if the consequences can be fatal. This dilemma can be difficult for some medical professionals, but as long as the patient is competent they have the freedom to choose. (Cordasco, 2015) Mrs. S appears to be denying the problem based on the physicians opinion and is competent to make the decision.

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The four core ethical principles that are called into question in the movie “Miss Evers’ Boys” are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Autonomy refers to the right of the patient to function independently and the ability to self-direct. This means that patients are entitled to decide what will happen to them, and if deemed competent, they have the right to either consent to or refuse treatment. All nurses and healthcare personal would be required to respect the patient’s wishes, even if they do not agree with them. Beneficence is the core principle that refers to the act of ‘doing good’ and advocating for the patient.

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The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to

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