Practical Nursing Assignment: Ethical Dilemmas, Health Equity Analysis

This practical nursing assignment delves into the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses, specifically focusing on patient autonomy, beneficence, and the promotion of health equity. The assignment begins by defining ethical principles and illustrating them with a real-world scenario involving a registered nurse (RN) dealing with a patient's refusal of prescribed treatment. The nurse's role in balancing patient autonomy with the principle of beneficence is explored, highlighting the complexities of ethical decision-making in healthcare. Furthermore, the assignment emphasizes the importance of health equity, defining it as the goal of ensuring that all individuals have a fair opportunity to achieve optimal health. The nurse's responsibility in advocating for social justice and addressing health disparities is discussed, reinforcing the commitment to mitigate health inequalities and address the social determinants of health. The assignment incorporates relevant references to support the concepts discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of key ethical and equity considerations in nursing practice.

Running head: PRACTICAL NURSING
PRACTICAL NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Ethical dilemma:
The science of rational reasoning is Ethics. The nurses are confronted daily with ethical
dilemmas. Several factors determine ethical conduct. How one person sees as ethical may be
very different from an individual who views a circumstance from a different perspective. In the
provision of patient care, nurses are accountable for using ethical principles. Ethical definitions
include fair, right and moral treatment. There must be opportunities for patients to express their
freedom of choice in providing services and to determine how they are to be treated. In a clinical
nurse profession, there are 4 main principles that are important. They are respect for patient
autonomy, the obligation to act with beneficence, no maleficence and justice (Haahr et al., 2019).
Example:
I am a RN in the local hospital and I was looking after a patient who was admitted in the
emergency department for sharp chest pain. After assessing him and collecting all subjective and
objective data including vital signs, I recommended giving GTN spray for reducing his chest
pain. Despite administration of the GTN spray, he was suffering from persistent chest pain;
therefore, I decided to give him opioid to reduce his pain. However, the patient denied accepting
the treatment approach I chose for him and stated that he does not want to take it. I tried to
provide him with all the necessary information as to why it is important, but the patient
disagreed. I was in an ethical dilemma that whether I should consider and respect the patient’s
autonomy or I should follow the principle of beneficence as a RN.
Nurse’s role in promoting health equity:
Health equity ensures all have a just and equal chance to be as healthy as possible. This requires
removing health barriers, including impotence and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay,

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high-quality education, quality housing and safety, and health care. Nurses are responsible for
promoting social justice and are expected to make health equality a primary objective. Health
equity is the fundamental principle of a determination to mitigate — and eventually remove—
health inequalities and their determinants, namely social determinants. To promote health justice
requires seeking to reach the greatest possible quality level for all individuals while paying
special attention to socially-determined concerns of the most disadvantaged (Braveman, 2014).

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References
Braveman, P. (2014). What are health disparities and health equity? We need to be clear. Public
health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 5-8.
Haahr, A., Norlyk, A., Martinsen, B., & Dreyer, P. (2019). Nurses experiences of ethical
dilemmas: a review. Nursing ethics, 0969733019832941.

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