Ethical Practices in Patient Care: Case Study and Ethical Dilemmas

This report delves into the critical ethical practices within patient care, emphasizing the principles of autonomy, beneficence, and justice. It provides a comprehensive overview of ethical guidelines that healthcare professionals must adhere to, ensuring fair and timely care. The report uses a case study of a 14-year-old patient who was a victim of assault to illustrate the practical application of these principles and the ethical dilemmas that arise in such situations. The analysis explores how the nurse navigated the complexities of respecting patient autonomy while also upholding legal and ethical obligations. It concludes with a reflection on the nurse's actions, highlighting the importance of prioritizing the patient's best interests while navigating the intricacies of ethical decision-making in healthcare.

Running head: ETHICAL PRACTICES IN PATIENT CARE
Ethical Practices in Patient Care
Student’s Name
Course

ETHICAL PRACTICES IN PATIENT CARE 2
Ethical Practices in Patient Care
Ethical practices are essential in patient care because they outline a set of actions and
decisions that must be implemented for the good of the patient. They help to ensure that each
person is given the best level of care and attention. Ethics serve as a moral compass that makes
nurses to administer patient care in a fair and timely manner. They guide health professionals in
making the right decisions in difficult situations. This is achieved when ethical guidelines
provide a solution to a moral dilemma that a nurse could be facing when attending to a patient.
Additionally, ethical practices ensure that health practitioners attend to all patients with justice
and fairness, and that they provide them with optimum comfort(Bulman&Schutz, 2013). Under
the principle of justice, health providers are required to make medical decisions taking all
matters of fairness into consideration. This helps to ensure that there is equal distribution of
scarce medical resources among patients. Also, it requires that they uphold all applicable
legislations when making medical decisions that affect a patient’s outcome (Krautschield,2017).
Further, ethical practices help to ensure that a patient maintains control over their body
and health by advocating for autonomy. A health practitioner may advise or make suggestions to
a patient but they should never coerce or persuade them to make a certain decision. Therefore, a
patient is allowed to make their own decisions independently according to their personal beliefs
and values (McLeod-Sordjan, 2014). For instance, when a patient has a terminal illness, a nurse
knows that it is in the best interests of a patient to proceed according to the patient’s personal
interests and will. Ethics dictate that care providers must follow a doctor’s instructions and
provide care in a safe way. They are compelled to point out issues with scheduled care or to alert
the relevant professionals on problems that a patient may face so as to achieve better outcomes
(Chism, 2015).

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Moreover, ethical practices help to ensure that nurses do all that is possible to benefit a
patient under any circumstance. The beneficence principle dictates that all health procedures
must be carried out with the intention to do the best for an individual. Therefore, medical
practitioners are required to develop knowledge and skills that will enable them to execute the
best medical procedures that are tailored for each patient’s case (Ellis, 2017).
During my clinical placement, I had an experience whereby a 14-year old female came
into the health facility claiming that she had been assaulted by her step-father. Upon full medical
examination, I discovered that she had been raped and immediately gave her the necessary
medical attention. As I was filing a report of the incident, the patient requested that the matter
should not be disclosed to the authorities or her mother. Her reasons were that she was afraid of
what her step-father would do if he found out that she had reported the incident. This placed me
in a moral dilemma since the ethical principles require that a patient’s autonomy is respected.
Conversely, the law requires health professionals to report assault cases especially that of minors
to legal authorities(Johnstone, 2015).As the care provider in charge, I went ahead and filed a
report with the authorities including my findings of the medical examination.
The ethical principles related to this case are autonomy, justice and beneficence. As per
the principle of justice, it dictates that medical practitioners must uphold the applicable
legislations and laws to a particular situation when making decisions(Solari-Twadwell, 2017).
Therefore, I was required by the law to report this matter to the legal authorities so that the
matter could be investigated and justice brought upon the perpetrator. The other principle is
beneficence which dictates that health professionals must do all things possible that will benefit
and bring good to a patient in a particular situation. In this case, the patient required medical
attention after her assault. Additionally, reporting the matter to the legal authorities was in an

ETHICAL PRACTICES IN PATIENT CARE 4
attempt to do good to the patient by having the authorities deal with the perpetrator and bring
justice to the victim. Lastly, the principle of autonomy is involved whereby the patient wanted
her decision of maintaining confidentiality and privacy about the assault respected (Mallari,
Grace & Joseph, 2016).
According to my own thoughts, I believe that as the nurse in the case, I acted within the
ethical guidelines pertaining to patient care. To begin with, I accorded the necessary medical
attention to the patient. Therefore, I upheld the beneficence principle of nursing. It was also in
the patient’s best interest that the perpetrator of the crime be brought to justice so that the patient
would feel safe and never have to undergo such an ordeal ever again. Reporting a case of child
abuse and sexual assault on a minor especially by a parent means that one is prioritizing the
patient’s best interest(Bowrey& Thompson, 2014).
As of the principle of autonomy, ethical practices of patient care dictated that I had to
respect the patient’s decision of keeping the matter private. It is important that pre-teens and
adolescents believe that their confidentiality and privacy will be respected by health care
providers. This will encourage them to always seek medical attention whenever they find
themselves facing such problems. However, the legal guidelines override this principle as they
require the care provider to report such a case of assault especially where a minor is
involved(Morton, Fontaine,Hudak& Gallo, 2017). I also believe that I upheld the principle of
justice by reporting a step father who was sexually assaulting a minor. Therefore, I am of the
opinion that I upheld the necessary ethical principles and this ensured that I delivered care to a
minor patient in the best way possible.

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References
Bowrey, S., & Thompson, J. P. (2014). Nursing research: ethics, consent and good practice.
Nursing times, 110(1-3), 20-23.
Bulman, C., &Schutz, S. (Eds.). (2013). Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley & Sons.
Chism, L. A. (2015). The doctor of nursing practice. Jones &Barlett Publishers.
Ellis, P. (2017). Understanding ethics for nursing students. Learning Matters.
Johnstone, M. J. (2015). Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Krautschield, L. C. (2017). Embedding Micro Ethical Dilemmas in High-Fidelity Simulation
Scenarios: Preparing Nursing Students for Ethical Practice. Journal of Nursing
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Mallari, M. S. N., Grace, M., & Joseph, D. (2016). Ethical Frameworks for Decision-Making in
Nursing Practice and Research: An Integrative Review.
McLeod-Sordjan, R. (2014). Evaluating moral reasoning in nursing education. Nursing ethics,
21(4), 473-483.
Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C. M., & Gallo, B. M. (2017). Critical care nursing: a
holistic approach. Lipincott Williams & Wilkins.
Solari-Twadwell, P. A. (2017). Ethical Decision Making and Moral Choices: A Foundation for
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