ETHICAL PRACTICE IN NURSING.

Running head: ETHICAL PRACTICE IN NURSING 1
Importance of Ethical Practice in Nursing
Student’s Name
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ETHICAL PRACTICE IN NURSING 2
Importance of Ethical Practice in Nursing
Ethics is a fundamental component in nursing since it articulates for the need to respect
patients and protect their rights while maintaining a high level of professional competency. Even
though nursing ethics emphasizes on patient care, it also reinforces the need to balance this
aspect with the requirements of healthcare systems in their working environments.
Professional Competence
Ethics contributes to nurses’ provision of safe and high quality care. Ethics specifically
influences nurses’ decision making in the process ensuring that nurses are able to perform to the
best of their ability. Alternatively, applying ethics in clinical practice enables nurses to increase
the quality of care provided to patients and deal with the diverse ethical challenges in the
workplace (Poorchangizi et al., 2017). Hence, nurse are able to ensure that patients are accorded
quality care and also be empowered to tackle challenges that compromise their personal or
professional values.
Ethical Responsibility
Ethics in nursing enables nurses to exercises ethical responsibility. Ethical responsibility
in this case will entail promotion of health, preventing illness and alleviating suffering. As such,
nurses who incorporate ethics in their practice acknowledge that they have the responsibility to
provide quality care to patients and their families (LSUA, 2017). Patients on the other hand
depend on nurses’ ethics which is an embodiment of trust and honesty. Patients entrust nurses
with their dignity and privacy (Holt & Convey, 2012). Thus, it is up to nurses to build
relationships that are based on mutual trust and respect. Such a relationship can be fostered by
incorporating nursing ethics in clinical settings.

ETHICAL PRACTICE IN NURSING 3
References
Holt, J., & Convey, H. (2012). Ethical Practice in Nursing Care. Nursing Standard, 27(13), 51-
60. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23488373
Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA). (2017). Importance of Ethics in Nursing.
Retrieved from https://online.lsua.edu/articles/healthcare/importance-of-ethics-in-
nursing.aspx
Poorchangizi, B., Farohkhzaidan, J., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Borhani, F. (2017). The
Importance of Professional Values from Clinical Nurses’ Perspective in Hospitals of
Medical University in Iran. BMC Medical Ethics, 18(20). Retrieved from
https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-017-0178-9