Personal Ethics Paper
Grand Canyon University

This essay will explore how my personal values and ethical morals come into play in the decision-making process in my nursing career. Being raised in a loving Lutheran Christian household in Stockholm, Sweden I can remember as far back as being a little four-year-old girl skipping to church on Sunday mornings with my maternal grandmother Ingrid, to the day of my serious conformation ceremony as a gangly 14-year-old teenager. Many ideals were formed growing up around my beloved grandparents and they are still present in my everyday life be it personal or professional. I strive to be honest, live with integrity, be non judgmental and respect my fellow man. To quote my grandmother “ Always try to do the best you can or don’t do it at all”. My choice of career was greatly influenced by my paternal grandmother Johanna a midwife of 35 years (she delivered me and was also present at my daughters birth). Along my winding road of nursing the love and compassion she felt for her occupation always inspired me to pursue my goal to eventually become a labor and delivery nurse. All nurses’ practice under a universal standard of care and each nurse define his or her own ethics and responsibilities within their scope of practice. (Ulrich CM, Soeken KL, 2005). Values are considered a fundamental part of the nursing profession because they influence the way people react and conduct themselves. However, this does not automatically mean that every person in my circle of friends, coworkers or patients shares the same personal ideals. In my experience as a nurse, it is frequently family members who define the values and feelings for the patient rather than the patient herself. This poses a considerable problem for the nurse who is trying to give the best care to the patient. Today’s nurses face the increasing social and ethical challenge of understanding patients’ wishes as our cultural and diverse population increases every year. When an mother experiences a loss, for instance if a woman looses a full term child in utero, in a particular culture, this loss of a child and the appropriate mourning behavior may be quite different for an Lutheran nurse in Florida versus a female Muslim immigrant. A nurse must be prepared for these different cultural responses and reactions, as well as adapt her behavior and skill to the situation. One such incident occurred where values, religious beliefs and professional conduct comes to the forefront. The code of ethics for the nurses rejects any attempt to perform activities that are contrary to the patient’s rights. These include the right to life, to self-esteem and the right to respectful treatment (International Council of Nurses, 2001). A married couple of Muslim faith came into our triage area with the complaint of not having felt a full term baby move in 48 hours (our criteria is to come in if you don’t feel the baby move in two hours) already there is judgment “ Why did they not come in earlier” from surrounding staff? Sadly heart tones could not be heard with a doppler or fetal heart monitor and conclusive result of a fetal demise was made by an ultrasound. The mother of the baby was acting stoic with a flat affect in response to the devastating news that her child had died. The father verbalized to my coworker that this was not a child of God and it had never been a child at all in his mind. The clinical manager asked if I could take over as my coworker (an experienced labor and delivery nurse for over 20 years) was not able to handle this situation. The child was delivered later that evening and the husband expressed that they did not want to see or hold the baby nor know the sex of the baby. As a nurse in this specialty I have gone through grief training and one of the common responses after a fetal demise is that the parents decline to see or hold the baby for the fear of how disfiguring the child might be, so we give them many hours and several opportunities to eventually say goodbye. In this case the parents did not change their mind, I remember searching for any signs from the mother that she was coerced or frightened by her husband in any manner. When the husband stepped out for a brief moment I gently spoke to the mother but she was very clear that her wishes were the same as her husband. This was a difficult situation to comprehend and as a nurse my greatest concern is always the wellbeing and safety of my patient. I was contemplating a social consult but for what reason, different religious views over how to cope and react in regards to the death of a child? When people have different personal ethics, it is often those differences that serve as the catalyst for ethical dilemmas. What may be a moral dilemma for me, based upon my personal values may not present an issue at all for my patient. When situations such as this arise you have to put your personal ideals aside and proceed in a caring, safe and professional manner and respect the choices of the patient. Each person has their own set of individual principles and it is those personal morals that establish the outline of our decisions on a daily basis. In the nursing profession, a nurse with integrity acts and performs his/her duties in accordance to nursing standards and ethics. We might base our beliefs on various religious and cultural backgrounds and many of us have been brought up in a different manner. Throughout my nursing career from the happy, sad, chaotic and critical moments I am confident that my actions as a nurse have made a positive impact in my patients lives.

References:
International Council of Nurses, 2006, 3, place Jean-Marteau, 1201 Geneva (Switzerland) 3, place Jean-Marteau, 1201.
Ulrich CM, Soeken KL. A path analytic model of ethical conflict in practice and autonomy in a sample of nurse practitioners. Nurse Ethics. 2005 May; 12(3): 305-16.