Case Study | Nursing Ethics

Running head: NURSING ETHICS
Nursing Ethics – Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING ETHICS
The case study here focuses on a patient named Sam. Sam is 21 years old and is
admitted in hospital with acute abdominal pain however, he has past reported history drug-
related psychosis. Agitated and self-harming behaviour Sam have compelled the medical
team of the inner-city hospital to put him under restrain. However, as per Sam’s attending
nurse, Camilla thinks that such approach will only exacerbate Sam’s agitation resulting in
further self-harm. The following essay throws light on the ethical issues and nursing conflict
pertaining to this case. The essay also tries to highlight professional code of conduct of nurses
and human dignity rights in relation to this particular case.
Identification of ethical issues
Utilitarian approach: According to this approach, the decision is made on the basis
of the greatest amount of benefits to the greater number of individuals. It is also popularly
known as consequentialist approach and the outcome is associated with the morality of the
intervention. Here the approach is, harm of one individual is acceptable for the benefit of the
mass (Hsieh &Kramer, 2012).
Deontology: According to deontology, the action is undertaken only after
ascertaining the benefit of that particular individual for which the action has been framed.
This concept was first framed via a philosopher named name Immanuel Kant and hence it is
also popularly known as Kantian deontology (Gray& Schein, 2012).
Libertarianism: Libertarianism means liberty for all. It promotes personal liberty,
political liberty, personal freedom and vouch for autonomy. It also provides immense
emphasis of freedom of speech, judgement, decision making and self-ownership. As per the
concept of Rawl’s principle of justice, every individual must have equal share of rights in the
society (Woods, 2011).

2NURSING ETHICS
Natural Law: The legal theory recognizes law and morality as deeply connected
entity. Morality is regarded as a parameter of judging between what is right or wrong or good
and bad. According to the natural law theorists, the laws of the human beings are defined by
morality. Authority (as imposed by government) and no connection with the law of the
human begin. The term “natural law” is extracted from a basic thought. The thought is,
morality of human comes from the Mother Nature. The purpose of human is to sustain a
happy and healthy life therefore, the acts which are against that purpose are considered to be
unnatural or immoral (d'Entreves, 2017).
Virtue Theory: It is an approach in the ethics that give importance on individual’s
character as one of the critical element behind ethical thinking. This element stays ahead of
the deontology and consequentialism. The three main virtues of ethics are eudaimonism
(classical formulation of Virtue Ethics), agent based theories and ethics of care (Smith, 2011).
Egalitarianism: It is popularly known as equalitarianism. It promotes equality among
the human beings, irrespective of race, gender, financial background and age. Egalitarianism
is given immense importance in nursing care as it preaches equality and well-being for all.
However, few critiques criticize this concept because this model of ethics fail to address the
willingness to pay importance towards efficiency (Buchanan, 2010).
Feminism: the ethics of feminism is based on the respect towards the female
fraternity of the society. It is an initiative to rethink, revise and reformulate the grounds of
ethics to higher extent. This will help the female members of the society to be morally strong
and to lead equal share of happiness among the opposite gender that is men. This approach
questions the traditional laws and norms of the society that is directed towards the male
members. The feminist ethicists provides immense emphasize on the legal, political,