Ethics in Nursing Being a Professional Nurse

Question: Discuss about theEthics in Nursingfor Being a Professional Nurse. Answer: Introduction: As it is people believe that nursing is a very noble profession and every nurse renders selfless service. Being a professional nurse call for performing a very complex task and at times the nurses feel that their nursing training should be incorporated with some training in aerobatics and tight rope walking since they have to perform a task which needs to balance between two contradicting duties. Discussion: When handling a terminally ill patient the nurse knows for sure that this patient is not going to get back home after recovery. The ethical demand on the nurse is that the patient should be given encouragement and build up his enthusiasm but at the same time the patient has the right to know the exact position of the sickness he or she is suffering from. This then puts the poor nurse into what is colloquially called a Dicey situation. In fact the nurse now finds herself in apposition where she has to choose between two evils(Gevinson, 1997). If she speaks out the truth and informs the full truth as is known to her then the patient feels very sad and this may even have an adverse effect on the main treatment. On knowing that he or she is terminally ill the patient may want to satisfy all his unmet wants and desires and not cooperate in the medical process that is being administered by the hospital. Many cases are known where such patients try out some extreme tricks for hood winking the medical authorities. The situation is likely to worsen. Again if the nurse makes a false statement that the patient will recover within a short time then the right of the patient to know the truth is violated. In such situations the nurse can only act diplomatically and remain politically correct. It is felt that the best thing to do under such circumstances is to interact with the patient cautiously and claim to be ignorant of the actual truth. All that get normally shared with the patient is that he or she is not the first patient who has that particular ailment and there are millions of people who suffer from similar ailments and have obtained medical treatment in this hospital. Technically speaking, this may be construed as being unethical but then also the basic concept of care is being delivered. The patient knows that he or she is not the first one to be struck by this sickness and the people who are handling them are quite experienced in delivering proper treatment to him or her. The anxiety of the patient is set to rest in an indirect manner. Here strictly speaking ethics have been violated but care and comfort have been delivered(Waubrafoundation, 2015). Though ethics may have been compromised with but the good act of delivering comfort perhaps more than makes up the fault (or is it lapse). The International Council of Nurses mentions in their preamble of the ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses that nurses are required to perform four basic duties and these are promoting health, preventing illnesses, restoring health and reduce suffering. They must respect the human rights, right to life, patients be treated with dignity and respect. The aspects of creed, gender, color, age, creed, illness or disabilities, social and economic status, nationalities and culture should not make any difference to the care and attention that the nurse has to deliver(Icn, 2012). While the aspects of cast, creed and all the rest of the points mentioned in the preamble are easily handled the matter of interpersonal ethics turn out to be a very tricky area. The politically well connected or the economically affluent or the socially significant patients have the tendency to expect priority attention bordering of being pampered. While the expression tricky situation has been used above, it may be taken to mean a sticky situation. Suppose any patient from the above class lands in the hospital with a minor ailment yet they expect that the nurse will always be around to attend to his needs, wants and at times fancies. Usually the number of nurses present on duty is limited (and this is an important economic consideration of the hospital) and thus the patient to nurses ration will get severely jeopardized if one nurse gets busy with only one patient(Nswnma, 2008). Conclusion: While the hospital will not increase the nurse patient ratio, still the demand for her exclusive service and attention to just one particular patient will be asked for. Such patients who are public figures can create damages to the image of the hospital and hence the nurse is at the receiving end. If she delivers exclusive attention then she is at fault for violating nursing ethics with other patients and if she does not give exclusive attention then she is neglecting significant patients. Hence tight-rope walking to be included in the curriculum of all student of nursing. References: Gevinson, A. (1997). Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films;https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bsoUXGZSxZcCpg=PA776lpg=PA776dq=Nurse+Dicey%E2%80%9D+situationsource=blots=x09m9cz1Xisig=B-5_qC5-TMQ_y6w2qPVBXEhk1oQhl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwiCsenup-7PAhUGNY8KHW. In Within Our Gates. Icn. (2012). The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from Icn: https://www.icn.ch/images/stories/documents/about/icncode_english.pdf Nswnma. (2008, October 23). New national code of ethics for nurses and midwives. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from nswnma: https://www.nswnma.asn.au/new-national-code-of-ethics-for-nurses-and-midwives/ Waubrafoundation. (2015, May 14). Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from waubrafoundation: https://waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/code-ethics-for-nurses-australia/