ANALYZING AN ETHICAL DECISION

Summary of the Ethical Issue in the Article

As a nurse we have principles of right and wrong in behavior but we normally teach the right behavior. All nurses have dealt with difficult ethical issues, where we find sometimes being even more challenging than the care we give to our patients, some of the moral/ethical issue we face is

.making an ethical plan for a patient in pain getting treated

.management of those patients who lack decision making capacity to make the right decision about their medical conditions

.moral distress in nursing by making sure they teach the right and the wrong principles

.when it is safe to say I’m sorry to avoid disagreement with the patients or the family members of the patient

.what nurses need to know about the elderly justice act and how to deal with it in the right way

                Moral and Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding the Issue

Nurses face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis as they are working on their duties, Ethical dilemmas is a problem without satisfactory resolution, some of these dilemmas are,

.freedom versus control, where the nurse should have the right to make a choose for a patient

.truth telling versus deception, the nurse must tell the truth to a patient about the medical condition while the family members deny telling the truth to the patient

.knowledge versus personal belief, when a patient is admitted and needs transfusion and the nurse belief that what the patient wants is unacceptable and how the nurse will agree with the family members who are on their patient side of decision and be supportive to this decision right

.distribution of resources

                        Analyzing the Ethical Issue

Ethical issue is a situation where a person or an organization is to choose between alternatives that must be right or wrong. These are the ethical issues,

.integrity and trust, where a person or an organization must have trust to one another while making the right decision

.diversity, not having an unlikeness to one person or an organization

.decision making, where you conclude a decision knowing the consequences

.Compliance and governance by agreeing to the wishes of others

          Process of Ethical Decision Making

Ethical decision making refers to the process of evaluating and choosing among alternatives in a manner consistent with ethical principles, here is the summary of the steps of the ethical decision making process,

.consider your character and integrity by making kind decision

.check your gut

.define the ethical issues, select one issue that you want to deal with

.gather the facts, don’t conclude an issue without the fact

.identify the affected parties both primary and secondary stakeholders

.identify the consequences which will occur after you decision making

.think creatively about potential actions not to be forced to do so

.be ready to deal with opposing argument

Consider potential action on the consequences, and character approaches and how you will respond to those with opposing viewpoints.

Reference

E, Bondman & B, Bondman (2002), nursing through the life span (4^th Ed.)