...Professional EThics Professional Ethics Legal and ethical issues are frequently encountered in the health care setting and present unique challenges to health care professionals. Practicing nurses need to be knowledgeable with these concepts to ensure patient’s rights. In this paper, the author will describe the relationships between legal and ethical issues. In addition, the author will identify personal values and professional ethics and examine ethical theories and principles. Examples of applications of legal and ethical issues to current practice will also be provided. Relationships Between Legal and Ethical Issues “Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with evaluating human action” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). It is based on the principles of right and wrong and provides structure to behaviors and actions. Ethics are closely intertwined with morals and values. Morals are “personal principles that are acquired from life experiences, family and peer relationships, religion, culture, and the law” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). Values are “personal beliefs about the truths and worth of thoughts, objects, or behavior” (Guido, 2010, p. 3). Therefore, ethics are subject to an individual’s personal interpretation. In contrast, laws are rules and regulations established by some authority and enforced by judicial decision (Dictionary.com, 2011). The legal system governs actions and behaviors without regard to personal values, beliefs, and views. Laws are constantly evolving to...
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...diagnosed with some sort of significant physiologic complication or just destine to be born earlier than expected ethical issues may require immediate attention. The ethical issues of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) may vary, depending on the development of the infant. Death can occur in as little as a few minutes to a few days. This gives the parents, physicians, and nursing staff very little time to make critical decisions. This paper will discuss the current ethical health care issue surrounding the NICU, the levels of NICU care and how the four ethical principles relate to the NICU. Levels of NICU Care NICU is designed to care for infants who require special care they would not receive in a regular nursery. The NICU is divided into three levels: Level I NICU - Basic Care, Level II NICU - Specialty Care, and Level III NICU - Subspecialty Care. Basic Care nurseries are required to have special equipment needed to perform neonatal resuscitation, the ability to assess healthy newborn infants, provide postnatal care, and stabilize ailing newborns. Basic Care nurseries cannot care for infants requiring respiratory support or other intensive care. Level II or Specialty Care nurseries provide care to moderately ill infants (who are expect to recover rapidly), and recovering level III infants in addition to basic care. Special Care nurseries can provide care for infants older than 32 weeks gestation, infants who cannot stay warm on their own requiring an incubator...
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...Research Summary and Ethical Considerations Michelle Parker Grand Canyon University Introduction to Nursing Research NRS 433V Nora Bazydlo April 8, 2012 Research Summary and Ethical Considerations The relationship between nurses and families is incredibly intricate. The intricacy of this relationship is shown whether the development is for a few hours in the emergency room or for a longer period of time in an intensive care unit or a skilled nursing unit. To understand the study reviewed for this paper it is important to understand family center care (FCC) and the concepts it enhances. Family care center (FCC) is an approach to the planning, delivery and evaluation of health care that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. It redefines the relationships in health care. It is where practitioners recognize the vital role that families play in ensuring the health and well being of infants, children, adolescents, and family members of all ages. They acknowledge that emotional, social, and developmental supports are integral components of health care. They promote the health and well being of individuals and families and restore dignity and control to them. Shapes policies, programs, facility design, and staff day-to-day interactions. It leads to better health outcomes and wiser allocation of resources, and greater patient and family satisfaction. ("What is patient- and family-centered health care?" 2010, para. 1)...
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...expanded in many ways. In the 1980s, the hospital opened with four beds in the neonatal intensive care unit and eight beds in the pediatric intensive care unit. According to www.fountainvalleyhospital.com, as of today Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center is a 400-bed, acute care facility with comprehensive services spanning from award-winning heart and stroke care, neonatal, and pediatric intensive care, high-risk obstetrical services, bariatric surgery, orthopedics, spine, and neurosurgery. Social Responsibilities Fountain Valley supports the community by sponsoring and participating in community events. According to www.fountainvalleyhospital.com, “As a healthcare facility, we are committed to providing quality care to our communities.” They are also committed to the growth and development of the City of Fountain Valley. As part of an investor-owned hospital system, they pay more than $2.3 million in local taxes that go toward the improvement of local infrastructure, and community programs. Fountain Valley also hosts an annual charity Golf Tournament in conjunction with the Fountain Valley Firefighters Association to help raise money for local charities. Factors that influence Social Responsibility Strategies There are few factors that influence the social responsibilities strategies of Fountain Valley. Factors that have influenced the social responsibility are training and decision making. The hospital needs to ensure that they have a qualified staff with the...
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...I scampered through the hallways at Dartmouth Hospital searching for a sign to direct me towards the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). My heart was racing knowing that I was walking into the experience completely empty handed. When I found the unit, I walked into a huddle of nurses going over the day’s census. I was assigned to a nurse who had the most severe and critical case on the unit. This was a full term baby, 40 weeks and 1 day. Though the charting from the hospital where he was born was not completely clear, it is said that the fetus was experiencing bradycardia for 17 minutes at 50bpm. This otherwise known low-risk pregnancy quickly turned into a STAT C-section. When the baby was delivered its ABGAR scores were 0, 0, and 3. The baby was intubated, put on a cardiac and brain monitor, and rushed to the Dartmouth NICU. An umbilical line and a venous line were all drawn to gain access to the circulation to hydrate and nourish. An arterial line was drawn because frequent blood gases were needed. As you can imagine, like I had, this baby looked like an experimental nursing tool. When I first saw him he looked as though he was fake. He had lines and tubes going in and coming out of every possible place on the body. He was hooked up to the EEG monitor to record his brain waves because it had been showing signs of abscence seizures. The baby had no swallowing reflex so frequent suctioning was crucial. When I arrived I was told that the baby would be going down to get an...
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...emergency caesarean section since the mother is incapacitated. The mother and child are in fatal danger if the doctor does not move quickly. The father consents to the surgery. Once the father arrives at the hospital, he is not allowed in the operating room. As he waits, the doctor comes out and tells him of his child’s birth. However, there were complications, so the child was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The doctor informs him that the baby needed resuscitation. The parents had discussed whether to resuscitate or to not with their obstetrician; that they would...
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...backgrounds and a premature infant that was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In this patient situation I observed social worker from the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services take away the parental and visiting rights of the mother and father due to their history. The mother of this infant was pumping to provide her baby with the breast milk needed for growth and development. As defined by Townsend (2014) an ethical dilemma requires a person to make a decision in a situation that seems to have no satisfactory solution, or the “choice is between two equally unfavorable alternatives” (p. 60). This became a difficult ethical...
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...According to Sundean and McGrath, ethical concerns of care became first prior to interventions while no constant practice on ethics decision-making take place in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Usually, ethical struggles in the NICU are related to implementation and withdrawal of treatment. As a result, differences in ethical decision making involve the interdisciplinary team (IDT) and parents, whether individually or in joining. Nevertheless who will make the decisions, ethical considerations in NICU affect greatly the IDT, families and the society. Thus, contexts for ethical decision making is based on four ethical principles, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice (2013). Autonomy Sundean and McGrath noted that the ethical principle of autonomy includes the right to self-determination, truth telling, informed consent, privacy and commitment. The application of this principle can be difficult In the NICU for parents are the ones who act on behalf of their babies. Also, the different point of views on how to present medical aspects to the families. Sundean and McGrath emphasized that professionals came to an understanding that communicating evidence-based facts and considering family values are the reasonable approach reflecting on the autonomy principle. Furthermore, the authors stated the importance on clinicians providing parents the best evidence-based practice for their child clinical situations supposing that parents will act in the best interest of...
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...every day, despite that there are neonatal patients suffering from painful life limiting medical conditions that have no treatment or cure. “Advances in medical technology make it possible to extend life, at times, the focus on ‘cure at all costs’ overshadows the obligation to provide dignified, humane, and compassionate care” (Rushton, 2005). In an effort to provide legal, humane and compassionate end-of-life care to infants, the Dutch developed the Groningen Protocol in 2003. Developed in collaboration with the prosecutor’s office, the Groningen Protocol was designed to guide a transparent medical and legal decision making process for parents and their doctors considering neonatal euthanasia (Catlin, 2008; Petrou, 2005). Neonatal euthanasia is the practice of hastening the death of a terminal ill newborn in an effort to relive their suffering. Most countries current laws make it illegal for the neonatal population to benefit from euthanasia. Research is suggestive that albeit in secret neonatal euthanasia maybe disguised and illegally practiced around the world. Legalizing neonatal euthanasia would not only allow transparency in end-of-life treatment options, but assist in the development of practice guidelines. In addition to the regulation of practice, transparency would authorize medical professionals to openly discuss the option for euthanasia with their patient’s parents along with the rest of the medical team. Active neonatal euthanasia is a form of euthanasia...
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...Assisted Reproduction Richard Grogoza Grand Canyon University Ethics for Health Care Professionals HLT 312V Professor Paula Janine Duistermars March 31, 2013 Assisted Reproduction Assisted reproduction is an area that requires much thought. Who should be able to receive this assistance to who pays for it in the case of those receiving public funds. The ethical question as to whether a mother should be made to agree to “selective reduction,” or in common terms abort a fetus or fetuses in the case of multiple eggs that become fertilized needs to be addressed and answered. There are several ethical dilemmas that arise when dealing with donating eggs or sperm, as well as with surrogate pregnancies. Those in the low income bracket are susceptible to being exploited by the idea they can make money by donating their eggs. A woman willing to donate her eggs needs to be informed of the dangers associated with this process, such as; it is time consuming and requires a commitment to follow through with the process. Once the process is started the donor must give themselves daily injections of one of various medications that temporarily shut down their ovaries. These medications come with side effects that the donor may not be informed of. Ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome is another danger in which in some cases can lead to kidney failure and even death. The egg harvesting procedure is invasive surgical procedure in which there is a risk of injury to the bladder, bowel...
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...According to Sundean and McGrath, ethical concerns of care are starting to come first before interventions while there is no constant practice on ethics decision-making occurs in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Ethical struggles in the NICU are usually related to implementation and withdrawal of treatment. As a results, differences on ethical decision making involves the interdisciplinary team (IDT) and parents, whether individually or in joining. Nevertheless who will make the decisions, ethical considerations in NICU effect greatly the IDT, families and the society. Thus, contexts for ethical decision making must be based on four ethical principles that are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice (2013). Autonomy Sundean and McGrath noted that the ethical principal of autonomy includes the right for self-determination, truth telling,...
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...Education Level, and Critical Reflective Practice in Intensive Care Nurses nuf_237 256..268 Lisa A. Lawrence, PhD, RN Lisa A. Lawrence, PhD, RN, Instructional Faculty, Nursing Department, Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ Keywords Critical reflective practice, education level, moral distress, registered nurse, work engagement Correspondence Lisa A. Lawrence, PhD, RN, Nursing Department, Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ E-mail: llawrence@pima.edu AIM. The purpose of this study was to examine how nurses’ moral distress, education level, and critical reflective practice (CRP) related to their work engagement. The study is relevant to nursing, given registered nurse (RN) documented experiences of job-related distress and work dissatisfaction, and the nursing shortage crisis. A better understanding of factors that may enhance RN work engagement is needed. METHODS. A non-experimental, descriptive, correlational design was used to examine the relationships among four variables: moral distress, education level, CRP, and work engagement. The sample included 28 intensive care unit RNs from three separate ICUs in a 355-bed Southwest magnet-designated hospital. RESULTS. There was a positive direct relationship between CRP and work engagement, a negative direct relationship between moral distress and work engagement, and CRP and moral distress, together, explained 47% of the variance in work engagement. Additionally, in the neonatal intensive care unit, a positive direct relationship between...
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...own practice, including how the contributions of one historical figure has impacted my nursing practice. And lastly, I will discuss a scenario where I, as the nurse, safeguarded two principles for the patient. Functional Differences Between a Regulatory Agency and a Professional Nursing Organization as it Pertains to my Nursing Practice Neonatal Nursing has been part of my life for over the last 10 years. My nursing license is very important to me. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to earn. As a nurse, I have nursing regulatory agencies and professional nursing organizations in place for my benefit as well as for the benefit of the public. However, both have some very different functions. When becoming a nurse, the Board of Nursing, (BRN), is the regulatory agency that issues and regulates licenses. It is a government agency with each state having the ability to choose how its own BRN will be organized and structured and which regulations it will adhere to. My nursing license is maintained through the Georgia Board of Nursing. It is the BRN’s role to protect the public’s safety, health and welfare as they receive nursing care. They do...
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...regulating the practice of registered nurses. The BRN enforces the Nursing Practice Act. The BRN also enforces and implements laws related to nursing education, licensure, education, and discipline. The BRN consists of a nine member decision making body. The BRN issues certificates for qualifying nurse specialists. A professional nursing organization is an organization that promotes ongoing education, research translation, advocacy and membership engagement and advocates for the nurse. For example NANN which stands for national association of neonatal nurses addresses education and practice needs within the evolving specialty of neonatal intensive care nurses while giving national representation of the neonatal intensive care nurse. The professional nursing organization strives to improve care by providing and forum for nurses communication on professional and clinical practice issues, education, advocacy and research. The differences between the Board of Nursing and the professional association are that the Board of Nursing implements more of a regulatory role and enforces laws and regulations regarding the nursing practice whereas the professional nursing organization is more of a facilitator of growth and support to the nurse and helps to improve care to patients and their families by providing ongoing education to nurses regarding research based practices. B. Nursing Code of Examples Provision 1 is “The...
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...Ethical Issues in Health Care HCS 545 April 25, 2011 Mary Nell Cummings Ethical Issues in Health Care In the United States, government ran systems exist of social support. Such systems are Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. These systems seem to be widely accepted in other countries than in America. Individualism and justice has been included in the United States foundation of welfare. Citizens feel a level of appropriateness allowing the government to spend tax monies to help an unfortunate person who has exhausted all of his or her energy, strength, and abilities to help himself. Americans further feel the efforts to help are satisfactory if an unreasonable amount of money is not used. Bioethics is a prevelent and sensitive topic of debate in health care. A single mother with children who is particially dependent upon welfare takes it upon herself to pay privately for a single treatment of Invitro Fertilization (IVF). This mother is implanted with several embryos and chooses not to reduce the number of fetuses and successfully delivers multiple premature babies. We must take into account the cost of delivery, care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and future cost to the Welfare system for all of this mother’s children. Reviewing this issue from a health care professional’s point of view, the four basic principles of ethics, beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and social justice, are part of this issue. The Four Basic Principals Autonomy ...
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