Professional practices are guided by ethics that ensure integrity is upheld at work. Nursing as a profession has a code of ethics that govern the operability of nurses. Various ethical issues are discussed in the law of ethics that nurses refer to in their daily practice. The ethical concerns affect the nurses’ moral choices, which may at times challenge integrity. End-of-life care is the most recent development in nursing practice. This care is surrounded by ethical and legal considerations which have raised many concerns. The following discussion evaluates end-of-life ethical issues and their effects on the decision-making process.
The recent advancement of technology has developed end-of-life care that provides an opportunity to conserve human life through the use of machines. Nurses providing this care may also let natural death take its cause by preceding a patient’s treatment (Karnik & Kanekar, 2016). These nurses are therefore faced with an ethical dilemma which is determined by the decision to provide life support or terminate life. The ethical dilemma, in turn, develops a moral conflict that eventually winds up in ethical stress.
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Moreover, nurses are responsible for providing the patients and their families’ sufficient education and information that will help them in decision making (Karnik & Kanekar, 2016). Communication on end-of-life preferences should be conducted to generate a discussion that will lead to appropriate decision making, based on the preferences of the patient. Nurses are therefore responsible for providing the necessary information that contains the effects of end-of-life care on both the patient and their families (Karnik & Kanekar, 2016).
In conclusion, ethical issues face all professionals, nurses included. End-of-life care presents many ethical considerations that guide the provision or termination of this care. Nurses are rewired to provide adequate information and communicate with both the patients and their families about the effects of the medical choices they make.
References
Karnik, S., & Kanekar, A. (2016). Ethical Issues Surrounding End-of-Life Care: A Narrative Review. Healthcare , 4 (2), 24. doi: http://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4020024
