As a nurse, I am driven by specific core values including treating every patient as an individual by avoiding any form of discrimination, observe honesty when handling patients, doing the right thing for the patients and valuing patient’s worth and do not harm. These are the driving force that ensures I do the right thing for the good of the patients ( Orford, 2012).
One day, working as the only staff person and in charge of a small ward with ten patients, I encountered a situation that challenged my value. Two patients attempted to kill themselves at the same time at the psych unit one was a black, and the other was white. I h ad to react first and tackled the black patient who was hacking at her wrists and held her arms apart, and at the same time yelled to the other patients to get the one (white) who was hanging herself out of the shower. As luck would have it, their attempts were within about 20 feet of each other. I yelled for other patients to get help from the next unit. We worked together both staff and patients, and nobody died.
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The experience challenged core my value of treating every patient as an individual by avoiding any form of discrimination because two patients were committing suicide from a different racial background. At one time, I was tempted to go for the white and leave the black to die since he had scary burns all over the body but I had to save both patients. Based on the argument by Orford (2012), I had to do the right things for both patients by ensuring that they are saved. From experience, I learned that it is always important to be keen when attending to the patients during the shift because they might take action to destroy themselves. Further, the experience informed my future behaviour, decision and action where I will always ensure that I concentrate on patients and attend to them irrespective of their race and illness and to take drastic action and involve other patients to save the life. The core lesson learned revolves around the need to focus on the aspect of concentration and to avoid any distraction that might cause harm when attending to patients especially those who are terminally ill with higher chances of committing suicide.
Reference
Orford, J. (2012). Relating your values, morals and ethics to nursing practice . Independentnurse.co.uk . Retrieved from http://www.independentnurse.co.uk/professional-article/relating-your-values- morals- and-ethics-to-nursing-practice/64200
