Abandonment and Nursing
The career of nursing is more than just healing the sick. Nursing often causes nurses to face moral and ethical dilemmas. “Ethics refers to principles of right and wrong behaviors, beliefs, and values (Zerwekh & Garneau, 2015, p. 420).” When new graduate nurses begin their careers the first twelve months are a great time to gain a better understanding of personal beliefs and how they can affect patient care. Nursing is a highly respected profession and patients will seek advice from nurses. Therefore, nurses should learn how to react to situations that may not align completely with their own personal moral or ethical beliefs.
Abandonment in the practice of nursing is not only detrimental to the health of patients involved, but to the nurse responsible for their care. If a nurse abandons his or her patients he or she has now been placed in a situation open to possible litigation, board discipline of classes or fines, and loss of licensure. As stated by the Oklahoma Board of Nursing, “abandonment may occur when a licensed nurse fails to provide adequate patient care until
…show more content…
Even one instance of abandonment can cause a nurse to find it difficult to have the trust of coworkers. They may also find it problematic trying to gain employment with any past of abandonment.
From all this research I have learned additional actions that are forms of abandonment that I hadn’t thought of previously. I feel that I am better prepared to not commit any acts of abandonment now that I have gained new knowledge and understanding. As a nurse I do not want to ever place patients in danger, not only to avoid reprimand from the board of nursing, but also because each patient is some ones loved one and I feel all people no matter what their past is like deserves great nursing care in a nonjudgmental way.
Oklahoma Board of