NURS 521 Week 8 Essay: Applying Ethical Tenets in Nursing Practice

This essay, written for NURS 521, explores two key tenets of the code of ethics for nurses: patient advocacy and responsibility/accountability. The author discusses how to apply these tenets in practice, emphasizing the importance of protecting patient rights and privacy by keeping medical information safe and maintaining patient confidentiality. The essay also highlights the role of responsibility and accountability, including honesty and love, in providing optimal patient care, which includes taking full care of the patient, being open and loyal, and avoiding malpractices. The author explains how upholding these tenets enhances their nursing practice, builds patient trust, and improves the quality of care. The essay adheres to APA formatting and includes relevant references.

Running head: TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
Tenets of the code of ethics for nurses
Name
Institution

TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
Abstract
The thesis of the term paper presented entails various tenets code of ethics for nurses and their
application in the practice setting with the patient. The paper focuses on at least two codes of
ethics I will apply as a nurse while attending to the patient. The identified tenets code of ethics
which I will apply while attending to the patients includes advocacy to protect the right and
privacy of the patient and responsibility and accountability to provide optimum patient care. The
purpose and description of the above mentioned codes of ethics are discussed in the paper below.

TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
Advocacy to protect rights and privacy of the patient
Advocacy to protect the rights and privacy of the patients I handle at the hospital entails
keeping the patient’s document safe and not disclosing any information about the health status of
the patient to unauthorized party. It is the right of the patient to have his or her health document
safe since sharing health information with another party will tamper with their private life like
keeping safe the patients' medical information (Vaughn, 2015).
Keeping patient's medical information safe
The purpose of this tenet code of ethics, which is keeping medical information safe is to avoid
leakage of health information to another party who is not related or close to the patient without
the consent of the patient since health status is termed as a private affair. Protecting the right of
every patient I handle will enable the patient to disclose his past health history thus ease the
process of treatment.
Upholding the tenet in maximizing the quality of patient care will enhance my practice as a
nurse in various ways since it will help me to gain the trust of most of the patients I serve due to
my advocacy for their rights and privacy hence most of the patients visiting the health care center
will prefer my service hence will help me to gain more nursing experience and skills (West-
Burnham, et al, 2018).

TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
Responsibility and accountability
Responsibility and accountability in health care provision to patients as one of the tenet codes
of ethics will require me to take full care of the patient and be open and loyal to the patient in
terms of the information relating to charges for the services offered to them. The art of
accountability is very sensitive since it relates to patients information on their health status and
cost incurred in time treatment hence it is very essential code of ethic for me. One example of the
tene code of ethics under accountability is honesty and love (Frederickson & Rohr, 2015).
Love
The purpose of love for individual nursing practice is to enable me to provide optimum care
for the patients. I will personally practice this tenet by taking care of the patient while at the
hospital which will ensure proper medication for the patient since all the diagnosis will be
handled properly.
Honesty

TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
The importance of upholding accountability that is honesty is to enhance my practice as a
nurse since through honesty to patients, I will be able to avoid some malpractices like corruption
or theft which is unacceptable. Through accountability, I will be able to avoid most of the
unprofessional behaviors which might keep patients away from seeking my services (Irwin, Bliss
& Poole, 2018).

TENETS OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR NURSES
References
Irwin, C., Bliss, J., & Poole, K. (2018). Does Preceptorship improve confidence and
competence in Newly Qualified Nurses: A systematic literature review. Nurse
education today, 60, 35-46.
Frederickson, H. G., & Rohr, J. A. (2015). Ethics and public administration. Routledge.
Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton
& Company.
West-Burnham, J., Wall, D., Coleman, M., & Bush, T. (2018). Mentoring and Continuing
Professional Development. In Mentors in Schools (1996) (pp. 121-143). Routledge.