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Ethical Theories in Nursing : Assignment

   

Added on  2020-05-11

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Running head: USE OF ETHICAL THEORIES IN NURSINGUSE OF ETHICAL THEORIES IN NURSINGName of the student:Name of the university:Author note:

1USE OF ETHICAL THEORIES IN NURSINGProfessional nursing may be defined as the duty of the nurses to provide protection to patientsthereby promoting and optimizing their health and abilities to survive and lead a proper qualitylife. They have the duty to prevent any kind of illness as well as injury along with correctinitiatives to alleviate their sufferings (Wanger & Dahnke, 2015). These are mainly conductedthrough proper diagnosis, different treatment of human response as well as through advocacy inthe care of the patients, families and also communities and populations. Therefore nurses of thepresent generation follow a set of key elements that guide them through their profession topractice not only competently but also with integrity. These set of guidelines which help them tofollow rules and responsibilities of their nursing profession is called the ethical guidelines(Felzmann, 2017). Ethics help nurses to provide care irrespective of their ages, economic status,citizenship, disability, sexual orientation and others by following a proper ethical framework thathelps nurses to practice their professions with the best outcomes, maintain patient rights, stayaway from legal obligations, and overcome ethical dilemma and others (Hamric et al., 2015).Two of the most ethical theories which are often found useful in guiding the decisions of thenurses when they face issues in decision making or when they suffer from ethical dilemma areUtilitarianism/ Consequentialism and principlism. The essay will fist discuss about the twotheories which would be followed by a detailed discussion of its weakness and strength.Consequentialism may be defined as the result based ethics theory which states that among allthe different actions taken by nurses in different situations during their care for their patients, onethose will be considered morally right action which will have the best overall outcomes. Many ofthe researchers are of the opinion that this theory is based on two important principles (Hewitt,2017). The first one is that whether an act would be considered right or wrong will entirelydepend on the outcome of the act which will in turn describe the status of the action. Secondly, it

2USE OF ETHICAL THEORIES IN NURSINGalso incorporated focus of the concept that better the consequences an act produces the better ormore appropriate the act would be. This has been incorporated in the theories which nursesfollow when they face ethical dilemma. It mainly helps the nurse to pick up these actions whichthey foresee to bring the most beneficial outcome when a set of actions are available to them asoptions to be taken for the patient (Casali & Day, 2015). Thereby this theory ultimately gives agood notion to be adopted by nurses in their practice that individuals should live in such a way sothat they can maximize good consequences. Different forms of consequentialism have beenstated by researchers over times which are utilitarianism and hedonism (Ivanov & Oden, 2013).While hedonism can be described as the guiding principles which state that humans shouldmaximize actions which ensure human pleasure. The other is the utilitarianism which has beenwidely used by nurses when they face issues in decision making. This states that nurses shouldperform any activities which would help in maximizing human welfare as well as well being.Many researchers have defined the topic of utilitarianism as the ethical theory which says that achoice is ethically right in a particular given situation only when it produces the most happinessas well as the least unhappiness for a largest number of people. It is one of the most acceptedethical theories as it is based on the human behavioral concept that every human beings withstable mental conditions would take up the decisions to carry out activities by trying to far sightthe consequences beforehand (Scott, 2017). Those activities they feel to being the best benefitare selected and the rest are rejected. The similar ideas are also adapted by nurses in theirpractices as they need to only perform those treatments to the patient which bring the bestoutcome and patient safety. For this they often need to continually upgrade themselves withcontinuous professional development to be knowledgeable about the current evidence basedpractices and implement them in their own care.

3USE OF ETHICAL THEORIES IN NURSINGAnother ethical theory which needs to be used by the nursing professionals while planning carefor the patient is the principlism. This theory mainly comprises of five important principleswhich each and every nurse should incorporate in their practices to be ethically, morally andlegally right in her approaches. The first one is the maintenance of autonomy and dignity(Beauchamp, 2016). It states that every patient has the right to self determinations which meansthat they have the right to take decisions of their own lives without nurses’ interfering orpressuring them to change their decisions even though it brings out positive or negativeoutcomes. The next principle within this theory is the principle of justice. This theory states thatevery nursing professional should provide care and allocate resources to patients in terms offairness, need and equality. They should provide care irrespective of the caste, creed, religionand social economic status of the patients so that they all can get equal importance and care fromthe healthcare centers (McCarthy et al., 2016). The third principle is called the beneficencewhich guides nurse to pick up those treatment plans which are the safest and would bring thebest care for the patients. This principle ensures that the care plan selected would bring good tothe patient and would have the least chances of the occurrences of errors (Casali & Day, 2015).The fourth principle is the principle of non maleficence which states that the care that is to beprovided for the patients should bring no harm to the patients. It should be such that it wouldbring no suffering to the patient. The last principle would be called the confidentiality andprivacy maintenance of the patients (Byrd & Winklestein, 2014). Privacy is the maintenance ofinformation which an individual’s wants to keep for himself only unless he desires to share thiswith anyone else. Confidentiality means the sharing of the information within a closed number ofindividuals where the information shared should not pass onto others abroad (McCarthy et al.,2016). The nurse should not share any information which is not wanted by the patients to be

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