Nursing Ethics: Importance, Violations, and Recommendations

Running Head: NURSING ETHICS
NURSING ETHICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING ETHICS
What?
The case study shows that the nursing profession has certain ethics that has to be
addressed by each of the nurses so that they are able to perform their job responsibly. I have
seen this during my PEP at a busy urban hospital. As during my practice sessions my lecturer
and the tutor gave me certain tips on the proper handling of the needles and cannulas. My
tutor has also told me that after giving injection to the patient we should never re-cap the
needle and should place it in a kidney dish and should dispose it directly from the dish into a
container that is designated for the disposal of the sharp (Dehghani, Mosalanejad & Dehghan,
2015).
When was I was placed under the registered nurse or RN I was asked to give injection
to one of the patients and I was very nervous about that. In order to do things correctly I
bought a kidney plate, however I was restrained by my RN who asks me to re-cap the needle
once I gave the injection to the patient. The nurse also screams and from fear and distress I
re-cap the needle but accidently punctures my thumb for which the RN made certain
comments that were very harsh and rude (Burston& Tuckett, 2013).
So What?
Professional ethics is referred to as the use of logical and effective communication
along with clinical skills, knowledge, and values that should be present in the nursing
practice. This is hampered in the above case as the RN is not interested in the proper
maintenance of the ethics in the profession (Russell, 2014). She was very negligent about
the fact that whether the reuse of the needles will be dangerous for the patient or not.
This indicated towards her negligence and inability to comply with her duty of care. It
also affected the knowledge that is being given or shared by the nurses to their lecturers or
guides at the time of their clinical placement or at the time of their practice sessions (Engel,

2NURSING ETHICS
& Prentice, 2013). This also creates a sense of mistrust among the patient and the nurse as
due to the reuse of the injection needle can cause potential harm to the health of the patient. It
can also cause some serious medical issue to the other person for which the reused needle has
been used and she did not even care that I can also fall sick then I will not be able to complete
the work in the clinical placement.
Thus, I understood that the registered nurse was violating the code of ethics in nursing
that clearly states that beneficence is the most important role of nursing. That means the
registered nurse should not affect the patient nor cannot any harm to the patient. This is very
important to note that the RN under which I did my clinical placement was not at all
following the code of professional ethics (Harding, 2013). This can cause serious ethical
dilemmas in the workplace and had also raised an issue between me and the registered nurse.
The nurses should be aware of the various professional ethics and the contributing factors that
can help the nurses to provide better healthcare facilities to the patients. This will create a
balanced workplace environment for the new nurses and would make them aware of
their duty of care as well as the older and experienced nurses by reducing their chances
of negligence and will also help the nurses to act as per their defined roles that is
according to the code of ethics (Cannaerts, Gastmans & Casterlé, 2014).
Next the registered nurse also screamed at me and that also created a sense of fear and
distress while working with her. It was becoming impossible for me and the other colleagues
to work with her in the same place as she was very difficult to handle. She did not respond to
other people properly and also performed all the tasks against the ethical practices (Jameton,
2013). Thus, the ethics were at stake in the hospital setting andwas thus making it very
difficult to work with her keeping our morale, values and discipliners aside. She was also
very rude to me when I was about to give my first injection to a patient. The way she behaved