Case Study: Ethical Considerations in Nursing Practice - ETHICS 1

This case study examines an ethical dilemma in nursing practice, focusing on a scenario where healthcare professionals made decisions that conflicted with the patient's and family's cultural preferences and the principles of informed consent. The analysis highlights breaches of ethical principles, including autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and veracity. The professionals disregarded the family's wishes and cultural traditions, proceeded with interventions without proper consent, and failed to prioritize the patient's and family's involvement in the decision-making process. The assignment references the NMBA code of conduct and emphasizes the importance of respecting patient rights, maintaining truthfulness, and obtaining informed consent. The author suggests that the professionals should have respected the family's requests, obtained informed consent, and made ethical decisions aligned with the patient's and family's values and cultural beliefs. This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of ethical issues and offers insights into best practices in healthcare decision-making.

Running head: ETHICS
ETHICS
Name of the students:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
ETHICS
Ethics can be defined as the set of moral principles, values as well as beliefs that are
extremely helpful for healthcare professionals to guide them so that they can make effective
choices and take decisions about medical care that aligns with human rights if every individual
client. At the core of ethical decision-making, is the sense of right to wrong as well as the beliefs
of the healthcare professionals about the rights they possess as well as the responsibilities that
they owe to patients.
Code of conduct of NMBA had stated that every nursing professionals need to maintain
respect the dignity, culture and ethnicity, values while providing treatment under conduct
statement four. Under conduct statement 5, they have also proposed the importance of consent of
taking statement from parents as well as from family members when patients cannot give
consent. By informed consent, the patients and family members get the right to learn as well as
understand the purpose, benefits, and potential risks of the interventions and care plans for them.
Maintaining the cultural tradition, preference and inhibitions are extremely important to satisfy
the patients and make them comply with the interventions. However, the professionals entirely
neglected the procedures of decision making in an ethical way. Although the family members
told them that their culture do not support involvement of the patients in his illness to make
decisions but the family members do so, he did not pay importance to the cultural tradition. The
decision that he took was not at all ethical and he conducted his decision-making entirely based
upon his own wish, without giving priorities to all the principles. Moreover, they also did not
take informed consent both from the patient as well as from the family members before the
suprapubic catheter was inserted. The patient was just instructed without discussing with him the
consequences, the needs and others. The patient was not aware whether he is going to die or live

2
ETHICS
and hence all these show that informed consent was not taken from him and neither from his
family although their culture instructed family members to be involved.
Beneficence means undertaking interventions that keep the patient safe from any harmful
adverse events (Staunton & Chiarella, 2013). However, although the professionals tried to take
an intervention that would reduce his pain and remove his blockage, the ethical principle of
autonomy and dignity was breached. The wishes of the patient and his family members were not
considered and they were not made a part of the entire decision making process and even when
they denied the professionals in doing so, they still provided terminal intervention. Non
maleficence is the process by which professionals make sure that their interventions are not
causing any suffering. Insertion of the catheter is painful and this might have created pain in the
patient and since the family member denied doing any such activities therefore, ethical decision
that was taken was flawed. Justice is the care that is given to patients based on fairness and equal
care to all irrespective of culture, creed and religion. The treatment that took place was not based
on fairness as their cultural preferences were breached and their cultural inhibitions were not
given attention. The rights of the patient as well as his family members were breached as
professionals did what they themselves felt correct and did not consider the morale of family
members and patients. Veracity was breached as although the professionals agreed to not
conduct terminal diagnosis, they still inserted the catheter to treat him and relieve him from
illnesses.
Therefore, the professionals should accept the requests of the family members, taken
informed consent from them and the patient and then take ethical decisions about the care plan.
They should have respected the rights of the patient and should have maintained truthfulness and
veracity of the situation.

3
ETHICS
References:
Staunton P.,& Chiarella M. (2013).The relationship between law and ethics (7th Ed.)Law for
nurses and midwives (pp. 28-29). NSW: Elsevier