Javie Bryant B.

Redil BN2B 10/10/2022

Ethical Challenges of Nurses in COVID-19 Pandemic: Integrative Review

The topic that I would like to talk about in this learning evidence is the different ethical
issues faced by our nurses during the Covid 19 pandemic. It was quite evident how hectic our
health industry was especially when the number of cases was at its peak, wherein most of the
hospitals were stretched away too thin. With all that has happened, apparently, there were
instances wherein nurses was pushed to work anatagonistic towards some of the basic principles
of ethics which are namely the autonomy, justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, veracity, and
fidelity. This work is in reference to the article written by Gebreheat G and Teame H, which shed
light to the various ethical issues that happened amid the Covid 19 pandemic.
When the Covid 19 pandemic emerged in late 2019,
it had changed so much, particularly in the health
industry. The said pandemic made dramatic alterations
in the way the health industry functions. For the past
two years, it has been a great challenge for them to
control the growing cases of COVID-19 because of its
unpredictable nature. The health professionals had
difficulty performing their professional duties and
responsibilities due to but not limited to reasons such
as lack of pandemic preparedness, scarcity of clinical
supplies, and implementation of social distancing.
During the pandemic, many health professionals,
and that includes nurses, had a hard time continuing to
stick to and apply the main principles of biomedical
ethics in the care of the clients as they were under a lot of
pressure given that everything was being rushed in
response to the public health emergency. In the
beginning stages of the pandemic, due to the abrupt
emergence, there was a scarcity of PPEs due to the high
demand yet low supply. Because of it, some healthcare
institutions experienced a shortage of PPEs yet have continued operating. This incident has
subjected nurses to work with moral distress as they were asked to work despite not being
equipped with PPE, putting not only themselves but their patients' lives at risk, causing harm in
the sense of transmitting the COVID 19 disease. This circumstance antagonizes the basic
principle of ethics– nonmaleficence, which refers to the principle that any care shall not harm the
patient.
 Another ethical challenge for nurses during the pandemic was the fair allocation of
medical resources. Justice is a fundamental nursing ethical concept, which implies fairness in
medical judgments in the context of medical ethics. When COVID cases
were at their highest, nurses faced difficulties carrying out the said
ethical concept, specifically allocating limited resources and attending to
the competing needs of the patients. During the pandemic, nurses were
making hazy judgments about various matters, including which patients
are most likely to be placed in a limited number of critical care unit beds
and mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Amid the pandemic, it was observed that there were instances wherein
patients waited for medical attention on the floor or
received poor treatment because the hospital's resources
couldn't handle the number of patients.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic had a
detrimental influence on traditional nurse-client
interaction. Nurses should be a facilitator of autonomy
to patients. However, during the pandemic, all patients,
especially the COVID-19 patients, were not at all given liberty regarding who should be taking
care of them. Usually, patients would have a person they choose to look after them at the
bedside, but this was not the case during the pandemic, as they were prohibited from having
someone with them in the hospital. Most patients are alone in the ICU, with no one to talk to.
Also, Nurses are the ones who help patients have pleasant grief and dying process. Contrarily,
many individuals were passing away in ICUs, separated from their families and loved ones, even
without having the chance to have end-of-life conversations because of the protocols in response
to the pandemic. With all that being said, nurses were incapable of fulfilling patients' will and
wishes, which is against the biomedical ethical principle of autonomy.
As a future nurse, this has enlightened me how difficult it is to become one, especially
during tough times like a pandemic. It can be very challenging in all aspects, including in one’s
ethics. This article has been an eye-opener to me of the possibility that, in my future career as a
nurse, I may encounter situations that will put my ethical decision-making ability to the test.
With that, as early as now, I should be very tedious in learning healthcare ethics, as it is crucial
in being a nurse in the future. I should equip myself with the right wisdom and knowledge
because by the time I work as a professional nurse, every action I take should be well-reasoned
and supported by the nursing ethical codes. The basic principles of ethics, which namely are
justice, veracity, fidelity, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and autonomy, will always be kept in
mind as this will guide me in practicing the art of nursing in the future fairly, truthfully,
harmlessly, faithfully, and an effort to promote what is good and freedom. These learnings will
surely come in handy at times like a global health emergency, serving as my pathway to deal
more effectively with ethical dilemmas, eliminating those behaviors that do not conform to the
moral standard of right and wrong.
 Reference
Gebreheat G and Teame H (February 27, 2021). Retrieved froom
https://www.dovepress.com/ethical-challenges-of-nurses-in-covid-19-pandemic-
integrative-review-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-JMDH