Introduction To Nursing Ethics

Presented By: Sharoon rufan

BSN.RN
Nursing Instructor
 Objectives

At the end of this session the learners will be able to

o Define the terms: ethics, nursing ethics and bio ethics,
value, belief, morals, attitude, conflict , dilemma,
ethical dilemma
o Discuss importance of ethics in nursing
o Review criteria of a profession
o Develop characteristics of a professional nurse

04/06/2024 Introduction to nursing ethics by s

haroon rufan
 Definitions

Ethics:
“Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that
involves systematizing, defending, and recommending
concepts of right and wrong conduct.”
“Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the
conducting of an activity.”

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 Definitions (contd….)

Nursing ethics:
“Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that concerns
itself with activities in the field of nursing.”

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 Definitions (contd….)

Bio ethics:
Bioethics is the study of the ethical issues emerging from
advances in biology and medicine. It is also moral
discernment as it relates to medical policy and practice.
It includes the study of values relating to primary care and
other branches of medicine

04/06/2024 Introduction to nursing ethics by s

haroon rufan
 Definitions (contd….)

Value:
“Principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of
what is important in life.”
In ethics, value denotes the degree of importance of some
thing or action, with the aim of determining what actions are
best to do or what way is best to live, or to describe the significance
of different actions.
Belief:
“A belief is an opinion or acceptance that a person holds to
be true.” Faith in God is an example of a belief. Morals:
“Moral implies conformity to established sanctioned
codes or accepted notions of right and wrong.”

04/06/2024 Introduction to nursing ethics by s

haroon rufan
 Definitions (contd….)

Attitude:
o Attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and
emotional entity that inheres in, or characterizes a
person.
o They are complex and are an acquired state through
experiences
o A settled way of thinking or feeling about something.
Conflict:
“It is a state of a serious disagreement or argument,
typically a protracted one.”

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 Definitions (contd….)

Dilemma:
“A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made
between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are
equally undesirable.”

Ethical dilemma:
“A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made
between two courses of action, either of which entails
transgressing a moral principle.”

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 Nurse
Importance of ethics in nursing

Importance of
ethics

Society Patient

04/06/2024 Introduction to nursing ethics by s

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 Importance for the nurses
o Ethics provide framed ethical principles to do proper
nursing care
o Ethics protects the nurses from all legal and ethical
issues
o Ethics controls, modifies, and molds good ethical
behavior in the nurse
o Ethics help the nurse to attain professional and personal
satisfaction
o Ethical values help in better decision making
o Ethics leads to profit
o Ethics is the rule for right conduct of any human being

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 Importance for the patient

o Obtain good and efficient nursing care

o Exercise the patient’s right
o Obtain all information needed about patient care
o Attain patient’s satisfaction because of high quality
nursing care
o Create a trustworthy relationship between the patients
and health care providers
o Safeguard the patient from all medico-legal problem

04/06/2024 Introduction to nursing ethics by s

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 Importance for the society and the people

o Following nursing ethics helps a nurse to be a good

citizen in society
o Nursing ethics guides a nurse to be morally and
ethically right and is inculcated in each and every
activity of the nurse that is directed towards the society
o Nursing ethics governs the ethical behavior of a nurse to
do only good to the society
o Nursing ethics never allows a nurse to do harm to the
society

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 Profession

Definition:
“A profession is an occupation requiring advanced
training and experience in some specific or specialized body
of knowledge which provides service to society in that special
field.”

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 Criteria of a profession

A profession:
o Must satisfy an indispensable social need
o Must be based upon well established and socially
accepted scientific principles
o Must demand adequate pre-professional and cultural
and systematized training
o Must give evidence of needed skills ,which public
does not posses, skills may be partly inherit ,partly
acquired
o Must have developed a scientific technique which is
the result of tested experience
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 Criteria of a profession(contd….)

o Must require the exercise of judgment as to time and

manner of the performance of duty
o Must have a group of consciousness designed to extend
scientific knowledge in technical language
o Must have sufficient self impelling power to retain its
members throughout life
o It must not be used as a stepping stone to other
occupations must recognize its obligations to society by
insisting the code of ethics

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 A professional nurse

There are multiple characteristics which are necessary to

be a professional nurse, some of them are discussed
below:
A caring attitude Persistence
Integrity creativity
Authenticity A desire to keep learning
Humility Willingness to follow
Good listening skills The ability to capitalize on
strengths

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 Reference

Clement,N.(2013).Nursing ethics:Concepts,trending
and practice.Pearson Education India.

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