Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
In your role, as an advanced practice nurse, you will encounter several situations that will require your ability to make sound judgments and practice decisions for the safety and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. There may not be a clear cut answer of how to address the issue, but your ethical decision making must be based on evidenced based practice, and what is good, right, and beneficial for patients. You will encounter patients who do not hold your values, but you must remain professional and unbiased in the care you provide to all patients regardless of their sociodemographic and ethnic/racial background. You must be prepared to critically analyze ethical situations, and develop an appropriate plan of action. For this Assignment, you will review the literature and discover the various ethical dilemmas advanced practice nurses encounter and how these issues are typically addressed in your state.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
To prepare:
Review literature for moral/ethical issues encountered by advanced practice nurses in clinical practice.
Select an article that was published within the last five years.
By Day 7
Write a two page paper that answers the following questions:
Summarize the moral/ethical issue in the article (no more than 1 paragraph)
Describe the moral and ethical dilemmas surrounding the issue
Analyze the ethical issue and compare them to the State Health Laws and Regulations in your state
Outline the process of ethical decision making you would use to address this ethical dilemma
Resource:Buppert, C. (2018). Nurse practitioner\'s business practice and legal guide (6th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Bartlett & Jones Learning.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
Chapter 16, “Resolving Ethical Dilemmas” (pp. 471-479)
I will upload a pdf for you
Ethical dilemmas in the clinical setting are encountered daily. They occur when scenarios, decisions or actions generate conflicts with the moral principles of the society. Ethical issues pose challenges to the healthcare service provision and may undermine the quality and adherence of treatment plans and consequently affect the patient outcome. However, they can be resolved following the ethical principle s of nursing practice that includes beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence and justice. In order to understand the ethical issues in nursing; this paper seeks to examine a recent article for a summary of the moral ethical issue, State Health Laws and Regulations and ethical decision-making process.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
Article
Kadivar, M., Manookian, A., Asghari, F., Niknafs, N., Okazi, A., & Zarvani, A. (2017). Ethical and legal aspects of patient’s safety: a clinical case report. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 10.
This article presents an ethical issue involving patient safety. The issue is characterized by a falling incident of a new born from the incubator. The patient is 12 days old and is admitted at the Children's Medical Center of Tehran University of Medical Science’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (Kadivar et al., 2017). He is the firstborn in his family and suffers from multiple seizures. The patient was stabilized via medication and a plan for transfer him to the level II NICU was formulated eve n though the insufficiency of beds available in the unit challenged the transfer. During this delay, a nurse heard sudden noises from the admission unit after which he found an empty incubator. The pediatric patient was also found lying on the floor which followed a series of announcements from the nurse in charge. According to the article examinations and assessments were conducted revealing that the infant experienced no injuries. On informing he father of the infant he accused the mother for being careless and neglecting the child even though she reported to have taken a rest during the occurrence.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
The dilemma in this story involves identifying the root cause of the problem and communicating it to the parents in an appropriate manner(Delgado, 2013). In general, a medical error occurred which sought professional communication to prevent blames games among the parents. However, the providers sought to hide the medical error to protect themselves and the organization’s reputation. On the other hand, the mother is allowed to take a rest which does not necessarily translate to negligence. Consequently, the father blames the mother of not checking on the newborn resulting in the fall. The dilemma is both legal and ethical in that, the providers lacked professionalism while dealing with the patient’s case. They chose not to disclose the medical error to the parents accurately to avoid blames and legal prosecution for neglect risking the patient’s safety. It is also unethical to not be transparent in a manner that imposes blames on the unknowing victims like the mother.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
The ethical issue in this case is associated with communication problems. The providers did not practice open and honest communication regarding the incident as expected by the nursing profession. According to the state health laws and regulations, trustworthiness is a successful risk management prerequisite. It is linked to a safe organizational culture and builds trust between the provider and the consumer. Another law involves the human resources. The state’s laws expect an NICU to have a sufficient nurse-patient ratio to ensure appropriate monitoring. According to Oppel and Young (2018), newborns at risk, more than one nurse is recommended while one nurse can manage three to four newborns with the lowest risks.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
Notably, professionalism is grounded on the nursing ethics including autonomy which is based on open and honest disclosure of health conditions as well as fairness whereby nurses are expected to act without biases and uphold non-maleficence and beneficence on the process. The laws of the state also demand the provision of safe and quality care services to patients which include the disclosure of medical errors as a form of support to the implementation of patient safety ethical imperatives. Fair compensation of negligence victims is required by the medical law.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.
The process of ethical decision making addressing the issue would begin with transparent and open communication within the involved parties (Delgado, 2013). For instance, I would call for a meeting among the NICU team to assess the risk and focus on the root cause of the fall. This would determine whether the fall took place in presence of the nurse or the mother or both and as well the reason for their absence during the incident. This would be followed by open communication of the finding to the hospital physical and the supervisor as well as the parents of the newborn. Professionalism and transparency will be upheld during communication to prevent ethical and legal conflicts. On the other hand, evidence-based research implementation on enhancing communication in fair and autonomous practice could initiate the achievement of a common goal which is safe patient care for the infant. I would also practice honest communication to prevent the mother from being blamed for negligence and initiate forgiveness between the parents and the providers.Ethical Dilemmas in the Clinical Setting are Encountered Daily.