Code of Ethics in Nursing - Importance, Challenges and Impact

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).