Oncology nursing is a speciality that is always associated with enormous challenges as regards the care of cancer patients, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of metastasis that would result in complications. Therefore, oncology nurses aim to improve the quality of life of patients by providing standardized care through good behaviour as a way of complying with ethics. However, the oncology nurses come across various legal and ethical dilemmas regarding the end of life issues in the process of care delivery (Park, 2009). Hence, to avoid litigation, nurses should develop knowledgeable strategies to deal with moral distress, moral dilemma and moral uncertainty as for the primary areas for legal and ethical issues in oncology nursing practice.
Moral distress, for instance, originates from a situation in which the professional nurse knows the legal action to take in case of the end of life issues, for example; though the action may be constrained by organizational policies, personal prejudices and power differentials (Ravitsky, Fiester, Caplan & Penn Center, 2009). It eventually leads to frustration and anxiety due to the compromised integrity of the professional knowledge that ultimately leads to the poor end of life outcomes. Such devastating outcomes may be associated with the failure to make informed decisions that lead to lower quality care for cancer patients (Park, 2009). Cultural and spiritual diversity may further aggravate this situation. Hence, the oncology nurses should resort to cooperation as members of the Palliative care to overcome both physical and psychological distress that might resultantly lead to litigation. Some other issues encompass lack of informed consent, poor patient-provider relationships, how to effectively care for patient rights and poor nurse-physician relationships (Ravitsky et al., 2009).
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Therefore, to counteract these issues, it is recommended that nurses should leverage the appropriate and ethical use of technology with keen interests in fairness and equality in resource distribution in the health care system. By so doing, they will be able to recognize wrongful acts so that they can sound as ideal good moral agents in the society. This will be based on openness to share ideas regarding ethical decisions in providing patient care (Ravitsky et al., 2009). Hence, there will be the quality delivery of care services due to improved nurse-patient relationships and a general improvement in living standards as regards the healthcare sector.
References
Park, M. (2009). Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice. Journal of Nursing Law , 13(3), 68-77. doi:10.1891/1073-7472.13.3.68.
Ravitsky, V., Fiester, A., Caplan, A. L. & Penn Center (University of Pennsylvania). (2009). The Penn Center guide to bioethics. Chapter 13: Ethical Issues in Nursing Practice. New York: Springer Pub. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hydXVrEWY-UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA147&dq=ethical+issues+in+nursing+practice&ots=Uy3bJaNNDR&sig=vF07BNx0xo6WwSLpXkmRtpgyWvk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=ethical%20issues%20in%20nursing%20practice&f=false
