NURS 440: Ethical Code of Nursing - Informed Concern & Impaired Nurse

This assignment, prepared for NURS 440, delves into the Ethical Code of Nursing, specifically addressing the concepts of "Informed Concern" and "Impaired Nurse." The student explores the ethical implications when nurses fail to provide patients with complete and accurate information, potentially leading to unethical practices and legal issues. The assignment references the American Nursing Association (ANA) ethical codes, emphasizing the importance of nurses protecting patient rights and safety. Additionally, the assignment discusses the challenges posed by impaired nurses, who may suffer from substance abuse or other issues, and their impact on patient care and hospital environments. The document highlights the consequences of impaired nursing and the importance for healthcare facilities to address and manage such situations. The student analyzes the responsibilities of nurses and the importance of adhering to ethical guidelines to ensure patient well-being. The assignment provides a concise overview of these critical issues within the nursing profession and provides the context of the assignment brief.

RUNNING HEAD: ETHICAL CODE OF NURSING
Ethical Code of Nursing
Student Details
03/07/2019

ETHICAL CODE OF NURSING
Answer 1
Informed Concern in Nursing
In nursing profession, it is important to govern the behaviour of nurses with the help
of some set principles and codes (F Zahedi & M Sanjari, 2013). American Nursing
association have established some ethical nursing codes, in order to govern the ethical issues
related to nurses and the nursing profession. From those ethical issues one of them is
“Informed Concern”. Informed concerned is the situation where the nurses do not inform the
patient as well as relatives about the actual condition of patient and the right treatment
required for the same. In this situation the patient sometimes might got informed wrong about
his disease or treatment, in order to charge more from him. This is ethically as well as legally
against the codes of nursing.
Ethical Nursing Code and Informed Concern Issue
In above mentioned ethical as well as legal issue it is the fault of nurses and hospital.
It is important for every hospital and healthcare facility organizations to provide a set pattern
of some principles which can direct the behavior of nurses in right direction. ANA is the
association that have launched some ethical codes of nursing. One of those codes, which
follow and govern the behavior in “Informed Concern” like situation is “The nurse promotes,
advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient”.
According to this code of ethical nursing, it is important for every nurse to follow the
rules of hospital as well as healthcare governing organizations (Marzieh Momennasab &
Afifeh Rahmanin Koshkaki, 2015). They should protect the rights, safety, health of each of
their patients. In Informed concern issue it is the responsibility of nurses to look upon this
ethical code of nursing again and never hide necessary information about the patient health as
well as treatment in future.
Answer 2
Impaired Nurse
In simple terms the meaning of Impaired is something damaged or weakened. In
terms of nursing profession, there is a term that is impaired nurses. These nurses may be
lacking in skills, education, experience or interest; however, these factors may affect their
working. Hence this in turn makes them as impaired nurses (Yong-Soon Kim & Se-Won
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ETHICAL CODE OF NURSING
Kang, 2012). These nurses may be dysfunctional in their activities of patient care due to
some type of addiction like drugs or alcohol. These are the nurses which does not have the
ability to provide good and safe care to their patients. There are many consequences of being
an impaired nurse.
Consequences of Impaired Nurse
In any hospital it is considered that one can find a dysfunctional or impaired nurse.
The nurse may be having mood swings, frequent episodes of tiredness, illness, elaborate
excuses, difficulty with authority, cases of accidents in working with patients, etc (Tanga,
Hazel Y, 2011). These all in together can harm the patient as well as the hospital in which
these nurses are working. In real world efficient nurses are preferred at the place of these
impaired nurses as they can perform drastically better than these impaired nurses. Due to
negligence of impaired nurse the patient may lose his life or the hospital gets in loss. It is
important for hospitals to always take of these types of nurses
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ETHICAL CODE OF NURSING
Bibliography
F Zahedi, & M Sanjari. (2013). The Code of Ethics for Nurses. Iran Journal Public Health.,
42(1), 1-8.
Marzieh Momennasab, & Afifeh Rahmanin Koshkaki. (2015). Nurses’ adherence to ethical
codes: The viewpoints of patients, nurses, and managers. Nursing Ethics, 23(7), 794-
803.
Tanga, Hazel Y. (2011). Nurse drug diversion and nursing leader's responsibilities: Legal,
regulatory, ethical, humanistic, and practical considerations. JONA'S healthcare law,
ethics and regulation, 13(1), 13-16.
Yong-Soon Kim, & Se-Won Kang. (2012). Moral sensitivity relating to the application of the
code of ethics. Nursing Ethics, 20(4), 470-478.
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