Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing: A Reflective Analysis

This report discusses the ethical dilemmas faced by nursing students and staff while delivering healthcare services. It includes a reflective analysis of a critical situation and the decision-making process involved.

Nursing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Ethical dilemma refers to the involvement of the need to chose one moral from choosing
more than one moral. This should be an acceptable option in course of action where one of the
choices leads to prevent selection of the other choice. This is related with delivering of
healthcare services and the healthcare premises where nursing student need to choose one ethical
value over the other. In this report, there is a discussion about ethical dilemmas which are
involved during the nursing experience. This explanation is provided through using the Gibbs
model which can help to provide a scenario of the event along with or related conditions. There
is a various ethical dilemma which includes right to privacy, confidentiality and right to inform
consent which create ethical dilemmas while delivering services to patients. This also helps to
describe analyzing and explaining the ethical dilemma which is involved during delivering of
health care services (Karakachian, (2019)).
MAIN BODY
In healthcare, many types of health-related physical devices arise in healthcare premises
for delivering better healthcare services. There is a need to evaluate this ethical dilemma for a
better choice for delivering effective health care services. There are some of ethical dilemmas
which are going to be discussed further. This creates difficulty and selecting one of the best
choices for delivering effective care and treatment to the patient.
As a newly placed nursing student in Royal hospital where I have faced different
situations related with emergency health care services. I have gained the various type of
experience which provided various experiences to face various type of situations related to
making ethical decisions. I was working in the hospital and got informed from the reception
about an emergency case of an accident. I reach and see that there is a patient is there who has a
serious head injury. There was flown-out blood from his head and needed emergency care to
save his life. Information has been shared that he was driving a sports bike which get
uncontrolled due to some reason and get smashed to the roadside. I was present at that time when
he arrived to the hospital and after observing the health scenario, I helped nursing staff to provid
emergency health services and help other nursing staff member to took him to the emergency
ward. I see that their condition was getting worse due to a large amount of blood has been flown
from his body. Senior nursing staff decided to provide him emergency care for saving his life

(Tanioka, (2017)). I was said to inform other healthcare professionals and doctors who can help
with better medication for improved health. In this, I found ethical dilemma about sharing of
patient information which was bleach of confidentiality right of patient get bleach due to sharing
information with other healthcare professionals who are not involved in delivering healthcare
services to that patient. This creates an ethical dilemma because patient health was critical and
needed effective medication and treatment to save a life.
I was feeling a little nervous because after it was seeing the critical situation of the patient
who has the head injury and flowing off blood in a large amount. It was my first time when I
seen such critical situation and I get nervous while helping other staff member. After a while, I
get normal and totally confused how to delivering better health and care services to the patient
for saving his life. In this situation, he was alone and there were no any relatives of the family
member with him. In such a condition hospital decided to continue the treatment and I was
advised to deliver healthcare services to saving his life. There was a moral dilemma that patient
should have the information about the treatment but due to unconscious and emergencies, I need
to deliver health care treatment and services by knowing this code of ethics which created ethical
dilemma for me to whether to follow the instruction of senior nursing staff or to value the ethical
concern of inform consent. Here, I had to make decisions that should be effective for the patient
for saving his life. I was asked to informed his family by getting information from his wallet
which also created an ethical dilemma about the privacy of the patient for me because I was
supposed to maintain the ethical value but as per guided and instructed by senior nursing staff I
had no choice instead of following instruction and bleach the patients right to privacy that was
due to an emergency. I have bleach to the right of privacy of the patient by seen his wallet to get
any clue about his relative or related people with the patient to inform them about his condition. I
feel that this is not professional and create a dilemma for me but I took the right decision to
inform his family or friend that can help them to provide the information related to the patient for
further help and real-time condition. I was thinking that I should follow all the ethical values and
not to breach any ethical code of conduct. But due to emergencies and scenarios, I have to bleach
the code of conduct for proper care of patient (Yuwanich, (2017)).
After handling the emergency situation successfully, I have evaluated that it was a unique
experience for me to tackle the emergency effectively and make a decision that is right for a
patient for the current situation. It was not ethically right but was best for the patient by avoiding

the right of privacy to the patient and the right to know information related to patient treatment. I
have made a decision my own-self to inform the patient's family members or friends and help in
deliver best treatment and healthcare service to save the patient life which was at high risk due to
head injury through an accident. It was a good experience to handle critical situations which help
me to make critical and effective decisions while under pressure to save a patient's life. I have
violated tackle the situation and make an effective decision that was better for the patient life. All
the clinical procedure and related with the treatment of the patient was effectively right. Another
healthcare professional also contribute in this situation to save the patient life by arranging the
operation theater and accepting the patient to the hospital premises and allowing to provide
emergency healthcare services for saving the patient life (Matos, (2018)).
After the successful operation and treatment of the patient, I have analyzed that there is a
change in making sense of the situation. During emergencies, I have analyzed that theoretical
and practical experience are vary different and sometimes there is need to make decision. I
should have make more effective decisions to tackle the situation more effectively that I should
follow the code of conduct of making an ethical decision that was to follow the right to privacy
of the patient by not searching for his wallet and look for patient’s personal information about his
family or friend. I have also analyzed that I should have taken approval from a patient about
operations or family while delivering effective health care treatment for saving the patient live
but due to getting on emergency, the patient was not able to focus on his right of concern about
the provided treatment. It was a situation of emergency where it was decided to provide effective
treatment to make him better and save his life without losing any time. The situation was handled
effectively due to getting help from other health care professionals and the administrative block
that allowed to take quick action for providing treatment and healthcare services during the
emergency time for the patient. I have analyzed that situation was handle collectively and
effective decisions has been made for the patient for delivering and saving the patient's life (Koh,
(2018)).
I got a new experience from this situation where I have learned that in some situation
there is need to violate the code of conduct and make decisions which is right for the patient
whether it is ethical or not. Sometimes, there is a need to make a decision quickly for delivering
better treatment to the patient and for saving a life. There is the situation of ethical dilemma
where everyone needs to make a correct decision to pick a choice to follow ethical decision

where another option was to following ethical code of conduct which should not be conducted
due to emergency or critical condition of the patient. In such a situation, the priority of the
healthcare professional is to save the patient’s life. This situation can be more effective if the
patient family or any people who know the patient should have been there that it related to
people. People should take him more quickly to the hospital which could have lower the risk of
patient life and allows to get more time for delivering health care treatment and services. Due to
this, there could have a chance that I should not ignore any code of conduct which was right to
privacy of the patient and follow the ethical code and focusing on my job for delivering best
treatment to the patient while getting confirmation from the patient's family or relative about the
provided treatment. I could have handled the situation more effectively by delivering effective
health care treatment and not getting in the situation of selecting one ethical code over another
(Truong, (2017)).
I have learned the new experience which allows me to make effective decisions in critical
situations. In the future, if the same thing happened again I will act more efficiently and make
more appropriate decisions while delivering effective health care treatment and services to the
patient. I will act differently while attempting the code of conduct and follow the article values
and rule to focusing on the right to patient's privacy and right to consent, if possible. I will take
some specific steps like informing the present relative of the family about the critical situation of
the patient to acknowledge them about their patient and utilize my nursing skill to deliver
effective healthcare treatment to the patient for saving his life (Arumugam, (2017)).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that during delivering health care services
as nursing staff, there is a need to face different ethical dilemmas where nursing staff and newly
appointed nursing student needs to select one ethical value over another. This creates a situation
of ethical dilemma and there is a need to make effective decisions and use the decision-making
skill to act appropriately without losing time and focusing on delivering health care treatment
and services to the patient to save life from the threat of death. In this report, there is a discussion
about the condition or situation and experience of nursing staff and emotional reaction. There is
also a discussion about the analysis of ethical dilemmas by using bio-ethical theory or principle
along with following an NMBA decision-making framework. There is also the use of ICN code
of conduct while making ethical decisions making for saving a patient's life. There is also

discussion about future nursing practice and way to act in the same situation for delivering
effective health care treatment.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arumugam, (2017). Reflective writing–how a medical student can reflect?. Journal of Education
Technology in Health Sciences, 4(2), 47-53.
Karakachian, (2019). Nurses' moral distress, burnout, and intentions to leave: an integrative
review. Journal of forensic nursing, 15(3), 133-142.
Koh, (2018). The Use of Group-Based Reflective Practice to Enhance Badminton Players’
Performance: An Exploratory Study. Asian Journal of Coaching Science, 1(2), 47-62.
Matos, (2018). THE FAMILY AS A MEMBER OF PALLIATIVE CARE
ASSISTANCE. Journal of Nursing UFPE/Revista de Enfermagem UFPE, 12(9).
Tanioka, (2017). The development of the transactive relationship theory of nursing (TRETON): a
nursing engagement model for persons and humanoid nursing robots. International
Journal of Nursing & Clinical Practices, 4(1), 223.
Truong, (2017). Cultural competence in the community health context:‘we don’t have to reinvent
the wheel’. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 23(4), 342-347.
Yuwanich, (2017). Experiences of occupational stress among emergency nurses at private
hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand. Open Journal of Nursing, 7(6), 657-670.