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Law and Ethics Nursing Principles and Ethics PDF

   

Added on  2020-05-16

9 Pages2040 Words91 Views
Running head: LAW AND ETHICSNURSING PRINCIPLES AND ETHICSName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor note

LAW AND ETHICS1Ethics is a set of principles and moral values that helps people to lead a life with moralprinciples and take decisions that will further help the society. Ethics possess higher importancein the life of nurses, as it is important for them to understand ethical consideration of theirpractice more than the state’s law. Ethically incorporated nursing practice helps them to takeeffective decisions for patient safety, security and autonomy (Sellman, 2017). This assignmentdiscusses about an ethical situation in which a patient ‘W’ have phobia of cancer and thereforeher family did not want her to know about her critical situation and palliative care. As a nurse topatient ‘W’, I am very close to her, and according to her words, she can accept the truth,regardless of its harshness, from my mouth. This assignment will provide the answers to thisethical dilemma of and will provide the course of action of such situation, in the light of ethicalprinciples and ethical theories. Further, this assignment will include the reason due to which, Iwill not inform her about her deteriorated health condition and considering non-maleficence andbeneficence over autonomy, justice and veracity. The ethical principles of nursing care are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence,justice and veracity. These principles are of much importance, as while facing any ethicaldilemma, nurses need to think of these principles to take any further step (Ellis, 2017). In thementioned case study, my relationship with the patient was the prime reason for the ethicaldilemma, as I was very close to the patient. As a result, as I came back from two days off, thepatient shared all her speculations about her health condition to me and asked me to reveal thetruth about her health. In such situation, the course of action should be according to the ethicalprinciples and laws (Goethals, Dierckx de Casterlé & Gastmans, 2012). The first principle talksabout the autonomy of the individual and states that every individual under care provision hasthe right for self-determination, independence and freedom to take his or her own decisions.

LAW AND ETHICS2Therefore, it is important for the clinicians and nursing staff in the clinical settings to respect theautonomy of the patient and create situations to take care of the autonomy of the patient. Thisincludes examples such as allowing the patient to check his/her, medical documents and seekassistance to understand their health condition. Further, it is the duty of the healthcare worker tomake the patient understand the risk associated with the health condition (Goethals, Dierckx deCasterlé & Gastmans, 2012).However, according to the principles of ethics related to autonomy,if the clinician or the family of the patient thinks that the knowledge about the disease can affectthe mental condition of the patient then they possess the right to hide the information from thepatient as per the ethics of beneficence (Johnstone, 2015). The second and third principlebeneficence and non-maleficence tells that nurses should utilize every step to make the patienthealthy again and in this course of action, they should not hurt the patient intentionally orunintentionally. Beneficence and non-maleficence are ethical principles to save the patients fromcausal harming. It allows the clinicians to take decisions for the welfare of the patient andprovide them with possible benefits instead of possible risks. Whereas the non-maleficenceinvolves protecting the rights and patients as well as their families and involves norms to helppeople who are in danger or want clinicians support to achieve health (Johnstone, 2015). Further,the principle of justice and veracity determines that patient has the right of equality, fairness andimpartiality and veracity seeks the nurses to be truthful and honest to the patients (Krishna,Watkinson & Beng, 2015). Hence, the principle of justice determine the equal distribution ofavailable resources among each patients, who can recover using that resource and makes thehealthcare process more consistent and transparent. On the other hand, veracity wants thehealthcare professionals to be truthful to the hospital authority, patient and the families so thatwhile taking decisions about surgery or harsh medical treatments, the patient and the families can

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