Code of Ethics in Nursing - Importance, Challenges and Impact

This presentation discusses the importance of ethics in nursing profession, the challenges faced by nurses in maintaining ethics, and the impact of unethical practices on the code of ethics of nurses. It also suggests ways to overcome these challenges and sustain the quality of care process.

CODE OF
ETHICS IN
NURSING
N U R S 5 2 1
W E E K 6

INTRODUCTION
• Ethics are the most important part of
nursing profession
• These include the protection of patients’
right, obtaining consent of treatment
from the patient along with other
behavioral and cultural factors that
affect the patient outcome (Tsuruwaka,
2017).
• Thus, it is important for the nurses to
maintain ethics as they create a
favourable environment for the patients
as well as the healthcare professionals
by developing mutual trust and respect.

THE SITUATION
• The nurses face a number of ethical challenges daily in order to
provide quality care to the patients.
• An ethical issue can arise in any healthcare situation where moral
questions of being right or wrong are present and underlie the
beneficence of patients as well as the professional decision-making.
• For instance, when the nurses observe that the patient are not getting
the safe care system in the hospital it is their responsibility to speak up
(Okuyama, Wagner & Bijnen, 2014).

THE SITUATION
• Speaking up is thus the important in order to raise concerns by the
healthcare staff in the clinical setting for the benefit of the patient as
well as the hospital.
• Hence, hesitancy to speak up against the unethical practices is an
important factor for communicating and reducing medical errors
(Iacobucci et al., 2013).

HOW IT IMPACTS THE
CODE OF ETHICS OF
NURSES?• The code of ethics is a guide to the commitment t made by the nurses
to the society and its people.
• When they fail to speak up against the unethical services they tend to
harm the relationship with patients and also their role to promote
health, well-being and safety (Happell et al., 2013).

HOW IT IMPACTS THE
CODE OF ETHICS OF
NURSES?• The nurse should practice with
respect and compassion for all
the patients that is being
hampered by the unethical
practices.
• As the nurse owes the same
duties to self and to others
avoiding ethical practices ca
have an adverse effect on
them.

TWO ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
THAT MAY ARISE
• While facing such situation, the first nursing principle
that may arise would be the accountability towards own
practices.
• While delivering care to the patients, it is important that
the professionals are true to their profession and takes
accountability of their actions (Lachman, Swanson
&Winland-Brown, 2015).
• If they are unable to raise voice against unethical
practices, then would not be able to stay answerable to
their decisions (Spector, 2016).

TWO ETHICAL
PRINCIPLES THAT
MAY ARISE• The second ethical principle that may create resistance
in their practice would be the justice.
• Ethical principle related to justice mentions the
importance of fairness and equality in the care process.
• If the nursing professional is unable to identify or keep
quite after facing any unethical situation, then they
would not be able to maintain fairness and justice in
their care process. (Baykara, Demir & Yaman, 2015)

HOW NURSES MAY
LESSEN THE IMPACT
• The nurses should understand the unethical aspects
that could arise in the healthcare process so that they
could become able to implement effective steps about
it.
• Further, nurses should be able to raise their voices so
that they could implement nursing principles related to
beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, autonomy and
veracity (Spector, 2016).

HOW NURSES MAY
LESSEN THE IMPACT
• Nurses should be able to stay true to their profession
and should be implement quality and equal care to the
patients so that they could comply with the code of
nursing ethics.
• They should be able to be responsive and clear about
their thoughts so that upon observing any unethical
aspects, they could escalate that to the higher
authorities, to restore the quality of the care process
(McDermott-Levy, Leffers & Mayaka, 2018).

CONCLUSION
• In this presentation, the ethical aspects of the nursing
profession has been discussed.
• With discussion about the unethical aspects, the
presentation mentioned the way it may impact the
nursing practice.
• further, with description of the nursing principles that
may get violated due to this critical condition, this
presentation mentioned the ways, it could be overcome
to sustain the quality of care process.

REFERENCES
Baykara, Z. G., Demir, S. G., & Yaman, S. (2015). The effect of ethics training on
students recognizing ethical violations and developing moral sensitivity. Nursing
Ethics, 22(6), 661-675.
Lachman, V. D., Swanson, E. O. C., & Winland-Brown, J. (2015). The New'Code of Ethics
for Nurses with Interpretative Statements'(2015): Practical Clinical Application, Part
II. MedSurg Nursing, 24(5), 363.
McDermott-Levy, R., Leffers, J., & Mayaka, J. (2018). Ethical principles and guidelines
of global health nursing practice. Nursing outlook, 66(5), 473-481.
NMBA (2019). Code of conduct for nurses - Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
Retrieved from: http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?
record=WD17%2F23850&dbid=AP&chksum=L8j874hp3DTlC1Sj4klHag%3D%3D
Spector, J. M. (2016). Ethics in educational technology: towards a framework for
ethical decision making in and for the discipline. Educational Technology Research
and Development, 64(5), 1003-1011.