An Ethical Perspective To Support Your Work Use Your Course

An Ethical Perspectiveto Support Your Work Use Your Course And Text R

An Ethical Perspective To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use resources from the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format. You may use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources or connect to the APA Style website through TASK. Post your initial response to one of the two topics below.

Topic 1: Nurses face many types of ethical issues. Discuss how you could assist patients and families who face ethical decisions? Describe an ethical theory or principle that could guide you in this process.

Topic 2: Examine one of the two models of socialization discussed in your readings. Place yourself in one of the stages based on your professional development at this point in your career. Provide your rationale for the model selected and stage identified. If none of the models or stages fits your experience, create your own model (or stage) and share it with the class.

Paper For Above instruction

Nurses encounter a wide array of ethical issues in their daily practice, ranging from end-of-life decisions and patient autonomy to issues of confidentiality and resource allocation. Supporting patients and families facing such difficult decisions requires a combination of ethical knowledge, empathy, and effective communication. An ethical principle that guides such support is beneficence, which involves acting in the best interest of the patient, and respecting autonomy, which emphasizes honoring the patient’s own values and decisions (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013).

To assist patients and families effectively, nurses must first establish trust by creating an environment where individuals feel safe and understood. This involves active listening and providing clear, honest information about available options and potential outcomes. Nurses should facilitate shared decision-making, empowering patients and families to participate in their care plans according to their values and preferences (Moisés et al., 2019). In complex ethical dilemmas, utilizing ethical frameworks such as Principlism—centering on autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice—can provide guidance to navigate conflicting values and make ethically sound decisions (Ulrich & Grady, 2017).

A specific ethical theory that can guide nurses in these situations is Kantian deontology, which emphasizes duty and the inherent dignity of the individual. This theory insists that each patient deserves respect as an autonomous person, and the nurse’s obligation is to treat all patients as ends in themselves, not merely as means to an end (Miller & Culver, 2019). This perspective encourages nurses to act ethically by adhering to moral duties, such as honesty and respect, regardless of the consequences. It can support nurses in ensuring that their care respects patients' rights and moral status, even when difficult decisions or resource limitations arise.

Additionally, virtue ethics offers another guiding principle focused on the moral character of the nurse. This approach emphasizes virtues like compassion, integrity, and wisdom, which cultivate moral excellence in practice (Hursthouse, 2018). By embodying these virtues, nurses can better support patients facing morally distressing decisions, providing not only clinical care but also emotional and moral support.

In conclusion, assisting patients and families with ethical decisions involves understanding and applying ethical principles such as beneficence and respect for autonomy, guided by comprehensive ethical frameworks like Principlism and moral philosophies like Kantian deontology and virtue ethics. These approaches foster compassionate, respectful, and ethically sound care, enabling nurses to navigate complex moral landscapes effectively.

References

  • Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2013). Principles of biomedical ethics (7th ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • Hursthouse, R. (2018). Virtue ethics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
  • Miller, R. H., & Culver, T. J. (2019). Ethical decision making in nursing and healthcare. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Moisés, A. M., Loureiro, M., & Teixeira, M. J. (2019). Shared decision making: An ethical and clinical challenge. Nursing Ethics, 26(4), 1023-1032.
  • Ulrich, C. M., & Grady, C. (2017). Ethical principles in healthcare: A review. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(2), 155-163.

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