Ethics and Values

• Study of Conduct and Character.

• The right thing to do can be hard to determine when ethics, values, and perceptions collide.

Autonomy

- Commitment to include patients

in decisions

Beneficence

- Taking positive actions to help others.

- The best interests of the patient remain more important than self-interest.

Nonmaleficence

- Avoidance of harm or hurt the will to do good, but an equal commitment

to do no harm.

Justice

- Being fair

Fidelity

- Agreement to keep promises unwillingness to abandon patients regardless of the circumstance.

Relationship Professional Nursing Code of Ethics

• Code of nursing ethics

- Aset of guiding principles that all members of a profession accept

- Helps professional groups settle questions about practice or behavior

- Includes advocacy, responsibility, accountability, and confidentiality

• Social networking

- Presents ethical challenges for nurses

Ethics and Philosophy

Deontology

- Defines actions as right or wrong, based on the "right-making characteristics"

Utilitarianism/consequentialism/teleology

Feminist Ethics

- Focuses on the inequality between people. It tend to concentrate more on practical solutions than
on theory

Ethics of Care (the one-caring=the cared-for)

- Emphasizes the importance of understanding relationships, especially as they are revealed in

personal narratives

Casuistry

- Case-based reasoning. "intimate understanding of particular situations"

NURSING POINT OF VIEW

- nurses generally engage with patients over longer periods of time than other disciplines

- patients may feel more comfortable...

Relationlip

Processing an Ethical Dilemma

• Step 1: Ask if this is an ethical dilemma.

• Step 2: Gather all relevant information.

• Step 3: Clarify values.

• Step 4: Verbalize the problem.

• Step 5: Identify possible courses of action.

• Step 6: Negotiate the outcome.

• Step 7: Evaluate the action.

Ethics committee

• Ethics committees are usually multidisciplinary and serve several purposes: education, policy
recommendation, and case consultation.

• Any person involved in an ethical dilemma, including nurses, physicians, health care providers,
patients, and family members, can request access to an ethics committee ethics commitee.

Issues in Health Care Ethics

Quality of life: Central to discussions about end-of-life care, cancer therapy, physician-assisted suicide,
and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)

Disabilities: Antidiscrimination laws enhance the economic security of people with physical, mental, or
emotional challenges

Care at the end of life: Interventions unlikely to produce benefit for the patient

Health Care Reform: Facilitated access to care for millions of uninsured Americans