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Learn how to identify and deal with common ethical dilemmas in nursing, such as pro-life vs. pro-choice, privacy rights, and religious beliefs. See 20 scenarios and position statements from the American Nurses Association.
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Aug 11, 2023 · Learn how to handle common ethical dilemmas in nursing, such as patient autonomy, confidentiality, end-of-life care, and resource allocation. This article provides scenarios, steps, and ethical principles to guide nurses in making ethical decisions.
- Balancing Patient Autonomy and Beneficence. Scenario: Imagine you’re a hardworking nurse in a busy hospital. One day, you face an interesting challenge.
- Maintaining Patient Confidentiality vs Ensuring Public Safety. Scenario: Imagine you’re a nurse at a psychiatric facility. One day, Mr. Anderson, a patient dealing with severe mental illness, shares his violent thoughts towards someone outside the facility with you.
- Disclosure of Medical Errors to Patients. Scenario: Imagine you’re a nurse in a busy hospital. One day, while giving medicine to your patient, you accidentally give them the wrong amount.
- Allocating Limited Resources During a Pandemic. Scenario: Imagine you’re a nurse in a hospital amidst a devastating pandemic. The patients needing critical care far outnumber available resources like ventilators, ICU beds, and medical staff.
- ACCOUNTABILITY. Per the American Nursing Association’s Code of Ethics, professional accountability, one of the important ethical principles in nursing is defined as "being answerable to oneself and others for one's own actions."
- AUTONOMY. Autonomy is another one of the essential ethical principles in nursing. It refers to a nurse's ability to act according to their knowledge and judgment while providing nursing care within their scope of practice.
- BENEFICENCE. Beneficence, another one of the important ethical principles in nursing is defined as charity and kindness and is demonstrated by nursing actions that benefit others.
- FIDELITY. Another one of the main ethical principles in nursing is fidelity. Fidelity is the act of being faithful and keeping one's promises.
The nursing profession is guided by a code of ethics. As you practice nursing, how will you determine “right” from “wrong” actions? What is the difference between morality, values, and ethical principles? What additional considerations impact your ethical decision-making?
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Utilizing the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, fidelity, justice, and paternalism as outlined by the American Nurses Association (ANA) provides us with a firm foundation for ethical decision making.
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Jan 19, 2024 · Learn how to identify and resolve ethical dilemmas in nursing, such as refusal of treatment, surrogate decision-making, and patient privacy. The web page explains the four core principles of nursing ethics and provides examples of common ethical issues in nursing practice.
