...Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice Maria Merritt Grand Canyon University Ethical Decision Making NRS-437V Teresa Ortner May 8, 2016 Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice Case Scenario: A 6-year-old develops a high fever accompanied by violent vomiting and convulsions while at school. The child is rushed to a nearby hospital. The attending physician makes a diagnosis of meningitis and requests permission to initiate treatment from the parents. The child’s parents are divorced. The mother, who is not the biological parent of the child, has primary custody. She is a Christian Scientist who insists that no medical treatment be offered for religious reasons. The biological father, who resides in another state, is also contacted. He insists that treatment be given and seeks independent consultation from another physician. Introduction Nurses and healthcare workers are faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. In order to determine how to address these dilemmas as they arise a systematic approach should be utilized to achieve a reasonable solution to resolve the issue in question. To make ethical decisions there must be a consideration of the problem and values in conflict, persons involved, the potential consequence of the proposed encounter and the moral reasoning practice chosen to resolve the dilemma. Uustal (1993) offers a systematic approach and nine steps to assist in the decision making process as applied to ethical dilemmas in healthcare. Uustal's model...
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...Confounding Ethical Dilemmas All children are brought into this world and deserve to have an adult act in their best interest. There are several factors that influence the way that their caregiver makes decisions about the child’s education, religious teachings, and health care (Purtilo & Doherty, 2011). Religious beliefs can affect the decision-making process regarding the type of medical care that the parent is willing to let physicians perform (Purtilo & Doherty, 2011). An example of this are individuals that practice the Christian Science religion (New York Times, 2016). This religion teaches the parishioners that all illnesses are caused by fear, a disconnection from God, and mental factors (New York Times, 2016). Parents of children that practice Christian Science believe that when their child is ill that spiritual healing will cure the child (New York Times, 2016). The parents will have an expert spiritual healer from the church come to help them cope and figure out the mental roots of the illness (New York Times, 2016). The case of a child that has divorced parents that are not in agreement about medical treatment for a seriously ill child creates an ethical dilemma (Purtilo & Doherty, 2011). The dilemma that the physician faces is whether to withhold treatment per the mother’s request due to religious beliefs or provide treatment per the biological father’s request (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). Health care professionals should override religious beliefs when...
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...Running head: ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS Ethical Frameworks Anna Marie Santana Grand Canyon University Ethical Decision Making in Helath Care NRS-437V Marianne Murray May 19, 2011 Ethical Frameworks Introduction Ethical decisions in healthcare are difficult. This is why it is essential for nurses to understand how to approach these problems and when to ask for help. Privacy and confidentiality are ethical issues where there may be confusion regarding the best course of action to take. Nurses need to know the laws and patient obligations regarding these issues. In Health care we have a law called HIPAA, (HIPAA.ORG, 2008) that ensures patient privacy. It is crucial for nurses to understand the regulations relevant to confidentiality in order to practice within the guidelines of the law. In the article "Bioethics on NBC's ER: Betraying Trust or Providing Good Care? When is it ok to Break Confidentiality?" (Nathanson, 2000), the author addresses an ethical issue that incites ethical conflict for a nurse. In order to coerce two young girls reluctant to seek medical help, Nurse Hathaway made a promise that no matter what she learns about them during the exam she will not divulge this information to the parents or anyone else. Finding out that her patient 14 year old patient not only had HPV, but also cervical cancer from participating in sex parties with multiple partners, Nurse Hathaway is faced with an ethical decision. Nurse Hathaway must decide to honor her patient’s confidentiality...
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...Applying Ethical Framework in Practice Adele Wolf, RN Grand Canyon University Ethical Decision Making in Health Care NRS 437V Charlene Cowley, MS, RN, CPNP February 26, 2011 Applying Ethical Framework in Practice Confidentiality is the right of an individual patient to have personal, identifiable medical information kept private; such information should be available only to the physician of record and other health care and insurance personnel as necessary. The only time information should be disclosed is with informed consent, with concern for the safety of other specific persons, or in concern for public welfare (K. Edwards, 2008). This paper will discuss the choices made by one nurse who cared for teenage girls in an episode of ER in 2000. Did she make the correct choices? Is it ever the right thing to do when confidentiality is broken? We will explore this case with the choices that can and should be made in this situation. In this episode of ER, the nurse is Carol Hathaway, she promises two young patients who are reluctant to enter into care that no matter what they tell her, she will not divulge any information to their parents or to anyone else. Test result for Andrea, one of the 14 year olds, is positive for human papillomavirus-(HPV) an extremely common sexually transmitted disease (STD). There are over 85 types of HPV infection and 95% of all cervical cancers are linked to HPV infection, which makes HPV the first sexually transmitted cancer. When...
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...Ethical Frameworks in Practice Ally Cherian Grand Canyon University. NRS 437V Ethical Frameworks in Practice Confidentiality is an ethical principle that demands nondisclosure of private or secret information with which one is entrusted (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008, p. 68). Maintaining confidentiality in patient’s information is crucial to patient nurse relationship. Breach of confidentiality can have serious consequences, especially for patient nurse relationship; however failure to disclose certain information can have serious impact on the patient, family and the community. It is the nurse’s responsibility to be aware of the basic principles of confidentiality and ethical framework in their daily practice. It is unethical, illegal and disrespectful to breach the patient confidentiality and can have serious implications, which includes: the client may be reluctant to provide full information about their health, failure to trust the health care providers or even hesitate to seek and avoid medical care. But in certain situations it is difficult for health care workers to honor the principles of confidentiality. When a physician or nurse has confidential information that can harm other people or community, maintaining patient confidentiality is difficult and an ethical dilemma arise. In such situations breach of confidentiality is crucial. According to the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses (2001) states that the duties of confidentiality are not absolute and may...
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...Ethical Implications of Euthanasia Cheryl Markuson Grand Canyon University NRS 437V Sandi Coufal, MSN April 7, 2012 Our obligations as a nurse are to support the family and the patient. We need to make sure that they have been given every option that is available. Sometimes there is no treatment. According to the ANA in 1.3 states. “…..care aims to maximize the values that the patient has treasured in life and extends supportive care to the and significant others.” (ANA, 2001) It also goes on to state, “This is particularly vital in the care of patients and their families at the end of life to prevent and relive the cascade of symptoms and suffering that are associated with dying.” (ANA, 2001) This is not an easy topic for the courts to support. In the case of Terry Schiavo, despite the family fighting to keep her alive, as she was alive in every sense of the term other than she needed tube feeding and fluids. When her husband decided he wanted the feeding tube discontinued the family fought through the court system. Despite the testimony of many other medical professionals that she was disabled, the courts stood by the initial decision of the judge. There is no one specific law that governs each state as a whole. Each state has its own ruling on euthanasia. In Texas it states, “A person commits an offense if, with intent to promote or assist the commission of suicide by another, he aids or attempts to aid the other to commit or attempt to commit suicide.” (ProCon...
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...Running head: ANALYSIS OF AN ETHICAL DILEMMA Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma Felicia Aigbe, Grand Canyon University NRS 437V March 01, 2012 Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma The neighbor/friend I interview is Rosa Manzanares, who work in a non-profit organization as a social security for elderly whom I interview in person to share her philosophy and worldview in relation to Voluntary/Assisted suicide. You must have heard of the word “Voluntary or Assisted suicide” what is your worldview? In my opinion, she said life is a gift from God, and she has no right to do what pleases to her. She believes a person will die when God says it is time and there is no going back. As a Christian, is against her moral and religious background to take her own life or to tell someone to Assist her. No one, no matter how hopeless the situation is even as a choice for some people but for me nobody has the right to kill or assist someone to die. The reason for euthanasia is to relieve the individual from pain and suffering. What do you think about that? For me I do not think doctors should participate in assisted suicide because is against their Hippocratic Oaths, “I will not give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect or in forswearing the giving of poison when asked for it”. The American College of Physicians and American Society of Internal Medicine do not support or encourage physician to assist suicide (ACP-ASIM,...
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...Running head: CONFIDENTIALITY Confidentiality Tim Arney Grand Canyon University NRS 437v Michelle Silvers July 21, 2012 Confidentiality Patient confidentiality and the loss of a patient’s trust as related to a television show called ER will be discussed. In this episode, a nurse named Carol Hathaway is in the middle of a teen’s medical issue and her parents. When an underage girl tells Nurse Hathaway about her sexual behavior, there are questions about the loss of confidentiality. How it affects those involved will be discussed. Confidentiality is one of the most basic principles in health care practice, and it is the most long-standing ethical dictum in health care codes of ethics. Confidentiality is the practice of keeping harmful, shameful, or embarrassing patient information within proper bounds. The right to privacy gives legal standing to this ethical principle. (Purtilo & Doherty, 2011, 206) It is the responsibility of nurses and clinicians to be informed of the laws of their state. Knowing and understanding the rights of the adolescents, right to confidentiality is very important. This will help protecting their privacy, and help in knowing what to do in these difficult situations involving adolescents. These issues are weighing very heavy on the shoulders of nurses of whether it is ethical to inform parents or not in these types of situations (Nathanson, 2000). It is not considered a breach of confidentiality if you share secret information...
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...Running head: MY PROFESSIONAL MORAL COMPASS My Professional Moral Compass Pamela Chesnut Grand Canyon University Ethical Decision Making in Health Care NRS 437V July 26, 2012 My Professional Moral Compass A professional moral compass is something everyone has and lives by. It helps assist in making decisions and is based on morals or virtues. My personal moral compass is directed by various inspirations, passions, and values that I try to live by. Compassion, loyalty, integrity, honor, faithfulness, hard work, service unto others, self-discipline, accountability, and a good sense of humor contribute to my worldview and philosophy of nursing. I try to give the same quality of care to all patients and their family members, which I would want to be given as if it were I or my loved one. A nurse uses their professional moral compass to make the best decisions for their patient. Nursing is all about the patients and without values, morals, and ethics nurses lose the focus on the patients. Values are the moral principles and beliefs or accepted standards of a person or social group (“Value“, n.d.). Values are important because they can help influence decisions, actions, even nurse’s ethical decision making. Morals in nursing are the principles of behavior in accordance with standards of right and wrong. Ethics is about what kind of persons we are becoming – our character and how our choices shape us (“Ethics”, n.d.). The ethics of nursing is the nurse's...
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...Personal Ethics Lisa Weartz Grand Canyon University NRS-437V December 29, 2013 Personal Ethics “Personal ethics is a category of philosophy that determines what an individual believes about morality and right and wrong” ("What are personal ethics," 2014, para. 1). Since these ethical ideals are specific to each individual, it is natural that not everyone will see an ethical dilemma the same way. Personal ethics are often a culmination of one’s spiritual or religious ideas, goals, and upbringing. According to the American Nurses Association, a code of ethics was developed to guide nurses in how their responsibilities should be carried out to show consistency of quality nursing care and the obligations of the profession. The Code of Ethics for Nurses states “The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems” ("Code of Ethics for Nurses," 2010, p. 1). My personal ethics are definitely a product of my religious beliefs and my upbringing. I was born, raised and still practice Catholicism. According to the Catholic doctrine, the church does not believe in in vitro fertilization since conception happens outside the body. However, even though it was against the church’s teaching, I believe that if someone wants a baby that bad that it is justified. I...
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...Ethical Frameworks in Practice Grand Canyon University NRS 437v Date: July 12, 2014 According to American Nursing Association code of ethics, provision 3,”confidentiality is associated with the right to privacy; the nurse has a duty to maintain confidentiality of all patient information. The patient's well being could be jeopardized and the fundamental trust between patient and nurse destroyed by unnecessary access to data or by the inappropriate disclosure of identifiable patient information. The rights, well being, and safety of the individual patient should be the primary factors in arriving at any professional judgment concerning the disposition of confidential information received from or about the patient, whether oral, written or electronic. The standard of nursing practice and the nurse's responsibility to provide quality care require that relevant data be shared with those members of the health care team who have a need to know. Only information pertinent to a patient's treatment and welfare is disclosed, and only to those directly involved with the patient's care. Duties of confidentiality, however, are not absolute and may need to be modified in order to protect the patient, other innocent parties, and in circumstances of mandatory disclosure for public health reasons” (www.nursingworld.org). This paper will discuss an ethical dilemma which a nurse encountered and tested her ethical principles regarding break of confidentiality. If the patients' private...
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...Personal Ethics: My nursing ethic Swaranjeet Kaur Sidhu Grand Canyon University: NRS-437V 03/22/2014 My Nursing Ethic People have their own views on certain issues. In the healthcare field many nurses will encounter ethical issues which may place themselves in a dilemma. “Ethics is that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.” (Ethics, 2014). A nurse or healthcare worker might have personal values that get in the way for a patient to receive the adequate care they require. Sometimes having personal values become an important factor in the nursing practice. A nurse’s personal, cultural, and spiritual values contribute to practice in nursing. In nursing school students learns about different types of ethical principles that is applied to their nursing practice. The students are taught a specialized body of knowledge, standards of their practice, and how to deal with different individuals according to their selected professional. “The nurse, in a professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems” (ANA, 2008). In the nursing field the nurse is expected to deliver good care, respect the patients and their decisions...
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...Professional Moral Compass William Douglas DeRosa Grand Canyon University NRS – 437V February 15, 2014 When entering the field of healthcare, one must accept the fact that ethical situations and dilemmas often arise and have distinct impact on the care provided. As the frontline care givers, the nursing staff must face ethical situations in their practice on a daily basis. The American Nurses Association (ANA) developed a code of ethics for nurses as a framework to provide quality nursing care while upholding the ethical standards of the nursing profession (American Nurses Association, 2014). This paper will discuss the author’s professional moral compass with regards to personal, cultural and spiritual values. This author, like many nurses, went into the nursing field with the purpose of contributing to society and giving back to the community. A personal desire to truly make a difference in someone’s life was a driving force in pursuing a career in nursing. This nursing aspiration had been cultivated through a lifetime of experiences, beginning with cultural values at a young age. Having been born and raised in a large, poor, Italian family, the author learned firsthand the importance of caring for and looking after those in need. A Catholic upbringing served as the foundation of the author’s spiritual values, particularly living by the well-known verse which reads, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so...
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...My Nursing Ethics Heather Trudell NRS 437V Nursing Ethics 4/23/2016 My Nursing Ethics Being from a Christian background love has always been taught in my house. One of the main ideas about Christ I believe many people miss that He truly accepts all people. You must accept Him as well, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, but His love reaches no bias and shows no prejudice. He loves all who have been made in his Father’s image, even if the love is not shown back. According to Luke 35:6 NIV, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked”. He will love and accept the homosexual prostitute with as much easy and tolerance as he does the Baptist preacher. He teaches love, tolerance, healing and help. To me, the healthcare field has incorporated these teaching that I have grown up with into an area of practice I can work. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be in the medical field, a veterinarian to be exact. As I grew up and no longer saw the world though the innocent eyes of a child I began to see the major bias the world held. For every “pro animal” project I’d see far less for humans. I began to see that people were more concerned with protecting animals than children. Our society places animals on a pedestal that is equal to humans if not higher. I knew wanted...
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...Running head: ANALYSIS OF AN ETHICAL DILEMMA Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma NRS 437V December 11, 2011 Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma Euthanasia, sometimes referred to as mercy killing, is an act by a third party that causes a patient’s death. Such acts include administering a lethal dose of medication by way of injection or mask, usually to a seriously ill patient. This analysis will discuss the ethics of euthanasia as it relates to nursing, laws, society, and the stakeholders involved in the scenario. The American Nurses Association (ANA) believes that the nurse should not participate in Active euthanasia because such an act is in direct violation of the Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, the ethical traditions and goals of the profession, and its covenant with society. (Task Force on the Nurse's Role in End-of-Life Decisions, 2011) While patient advocates should be vigilant for providing diligent care, they should perform their tasks with respect, support and due commitment towards their care. In healthcare practice, in order to relieve pain and suffering, there is an obligation to promote dignity and autonomy of patients. Euthanasia is a complex issue in which nurses are uncomfortable determining the life and death of a patient. Nurses have to practice ethical principles of beneficence, which maximize benefit and reduce potential risk and harm to the patient. Non-malfeasance is another ethical issue in which a nurse should do no harm. A competent...
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