Professional Nursing: Ethical Principles and Values

Running head: PROFESSIONAL NURSING
PROFESSIONAL NURSING
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PROFESSIONAL NURSING
The codes of ethics state that one of the most important principle that nurses should value
is informed decision-making. Another important principle is that nurses should value the
diversity of the people. Researchers are of the opinion that nurses should provide person centred
care by taking informed consent and putting the patient in central position in decision-making
procedures (Oh & Gastrmans, 2015). This assures the patients that they are aware of what would
happen with them and the procedures that the professionals would follow for their interventions.
These make them less anxious as they develop prior knowledge. Moreover, when patients are
incorporated in decision-making sessions, they feel that nurses respect their suggestions and
consents and thereby their self-esteem and self-respect are not hurt. On the other hand, following
a culturally competent practice by providing respect to the diversity, ethnicity and culture of the
patients make them feel that their autonomy and dignity is respected (Epstein & Turner, 2015).
They feel that their cultural traditions, preferences and inhibitions would be varied of and
culturally competent care would be provided. This ensures development of trust of patients on
professionals and helps them to align with the interventions of the professionals.
One of the most important ethical values that nurses should develop is the providing of
care to patients based on the principle of beneficence. This includes nursing professionals to
develop care practices that would not only ensure the patients to safest care but would also
maximise the potential benefits to patients at the same time of reducing chances of potential
harm (Kangasniemi et al., 2015). Such ethical value also emphasizes on the compassionate care
for the patients and advocates for continual striving for excellence. Often nurses are advised to
go through continuous professional development and evidence based practices so that safest and
high quality care can be provided to patients. Accountability can be defined as the professional
moral value by which nurses should be able to give an account of the clinical judgements actions