Nursing Philosophy Essay

Adison Lange

4/12/23

Philosophy Final

Ethical Principles Pertaining to Nursing When it comes to philosophy, there can be different jobs or aspects that can be related to it. One of these ways is through ethics, specifically in nursing. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that primarily focuses on human conduct, and more specifically, the behavior of individuals in a society (Secretariat 2015). The nursing field, or even the healthcare field in general, is constantly having ethics that are needed to be put out there for the patient and workers sake. These ethics are taken seriously within nursing and all nurses are required to follow them. Without these certain principles, nurses would not know what is ethically righteful, and what is. In nursing,

Within this, each person has the right to refuse surgery, treatment, or even certain medications that a nurse or doctor may prescribe (Davies 2022). According to the American Nurses Association, also known as the ANA, “Autonomy in nursing means providing adequate information to allow patients to make their own decisions based on their beliefs and values, even if they are not the ones the nurse chooses'' (ANA 2023). This states that nurses are required to let the patient choose what his/her course of treatment they would like after they have been explained all of the possible treatments. Autonomy can also be defined as the nurse’s ability to provide knowledgeable information and experience from the past to patient care and make clinical decisions regarding patient care (Faubion 2023). This specific part of ethics in nursing grants that nurses are eligible to determine specific parts of patient care without having to have a physician or someone higher above them to consult it (Faubion

The ANA states, “Beneficence in nursing relates to ensuring that the patient's best interest is considered, regardless of the nurse's personal opinion (ANA 2023). Nurses must be able to put aside their own opinions to be able to provide the patient with the best care that can be given to them. Sometimes the patient may not be able to verbalize what they need or there may be tasks that they cannot perform independently. This would be when the beneficence ethics comes into play. Another example of this principle could be if a patient is dying and there is no longer any other types of care that can be given, the nurse’s job would be to make the patient as comfortable as they can be (ANA 2023). A dying patient will not be able to tell the nurse what they need in order to make the passing go as comfortably as it can, so the nurse needs to provide the best care at that point. This principle of ethics is considered to be promoting the good and always doing what is best for the patient