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NSC 385 Week 5Ethics and Professional Nursing Practice

What is Personhood?• Immanuel Kant the

philosopher gave us one of the first definitions of personhood: “A person is a Rational agent , who alone is capable of exercising freedom as Autonomy”

• Assumes Persons are rational and self –conscious or thinking

Nursing and Personhood• Respect for all people

and patients

• Forming therapeutic relationships with patients and staff

• Nurses must work to “understand our patients and create a respectful, trusting relationship”

Code of Ethics• Defined as a written element for the profession

(Nursing) that provides a Self-declaration of how

the profession (Nursing) and its Members should

function in their duties and responsibilities and what

the public should expect as a Competent level of

safe service (American Nurses Association, 2003)

ANA Code of Ethics• Based on 4 Principles:

• 1) Do no harm to patients

• 2) Benefit Others

• 3)Loyalty to Patients

• 4)Being Truthful in all facets of practice.

• Also stressed the Autonomy of the patient and Social Justice for all people

Moral Duties based on Respect for Persons

• Veracity or Speaking

Truth

• Loyalty or Fidelity

• Justice or Respecting

Equality

• (Zerwekh, 2006)

• Beneficence or Doing

Good

• Non-maleficence or

Avoiding Harm

• Autonomy or

Respecting Freedom

Ethical Decision Making• Ethical decisions

are made based on

the Moral Duties.

Good ethical

decisions are based

on Critical

Reflection and On-

going Dialogue

about ethical issues

presented in the healthcare setting.

Organizational Ethics Defined

• Best described as the integration of values into

clinical decision making, hospital policies, and

behavior throughout the multi-disciplinary

environment of the healthcare setting ( Roux &

Halstead, 2009).

• Pertains to Both: A) Clinical Practice & Business

Practices

Organizational Ethics• WE know that the profession of Nursing is guided by

strict Ethical Standards, but what do Healthcare

Organizations do to ensure that patients receive

Ethical care?

• Formulating Patient Bills of Rights

• Using and respecting Advance Directives

• Being Patient Advocates: using Nurse Navigators or

Case Managers

• Using Ethics Committees

Ethics Committees• An Ethics Committee is

“ideally a multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals (and clergy) charged with Ethics education, policy formation, and review and consultation within an organizational setting”

• (Roux & Halstead, 2009, p. 351)

Goals of Ethics Committees

• 1. Promote and Protect the Rights of patients

• 2. Promote shared decision making between patients and their clinicians.

• 3. To promote fairness and procedures that maximize the likelihood of achieving good, patient-centered outcomes.

• 4. Promote Ethical conduct of healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions (Roux & Halstead, 2009).

Four Ethical Directives for Professional Nurses

• Confidentiality

• Competence

• Relationship Centered

• Truthfulness

• (Roux & Halstead, 2009,

pp 352-353).

Reflective Thoughts• We must all as nurses continually examine and

Reflect on our values, beliefs, thoughts, and actions

as we strive diligently to provide therapeutic,

holistic, evidence-based care for our complex

clients.

• Nursing is Ethically challenging but is our individual

responsibility to “Self-Check” and make sure our

personal issues and thoughts do not cloud our

ability to be caring, compassionate , effective

nurses (Hart, 2014).