Nursing is one of the professions that the nation has trust on. However, the profession faces challenging situations in its daily operations. Nurses have the obligation to support one another in the process of achieving ethical obligations. Ethics bases its principles on ‘right and wrong.’ Otherwise, ‘right and wrong’ is a relative term depending on the culture of a community. For example, while terminating death may be right in some communities, it may be wrong in others. Nursing ethics describes the right codes of behavior that nurses are obliged to abide by in their professional practice. It is also what the public expect from nursing practice in the perspectives of right or wrong. There are key principles that make up nursing ethics. They include fidelity, accountability, veracity, autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. The paper discusses ethics in the nursing profession and analyzes documents of codes of ethics in the nursing practice.
Nurses have the responsibility to protect and promote the health of the public. As such, they have to adhere to the necessary values attached to the profession. Principles of ethics are concerned with how people should treat one another. In the realm of practice, nurses face ethical dilemmas in health, political, and social issues. Nurses must know that ethical considerations do not concern whether they will face ethical dilemmas but prepare themselves on how to respond to them when need arises. Ethics draws points of analysis both from education and professional experience. Beth (2015) lists the common topics in the ethical climate as to be financial issues and the culture of quality and safety. The American Nurses Association suggests more topics on ethical dilemma, which include social justice, end of life issues, care-giving resources, bioethics, and moral courage. Ethical decision making also entails factoring in social dynamics to accommodate a view that the current trends support.
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The Code of Academic and Clinical Conduct
The section ensures that the patient is confident with the health care services. With upholding of rights and patient confidentiality, there is an assurance on the part of patients. Secondly, the section ensures that there is effective communication between healthcare providers and patients. Thirdly, the code instills responsibility on the part of healthcare providers as they need to uphold patient rights, maintain patient confidentiality, and take appropriate actions ( Olson & Stokes, 2016) . Next, the section ensures quality service delivery as it requires healthcare providers to embrace good personal qualities such as compassion, care, and respect. Next, the section promotes professional excellence as healthcare givers are required to perform skills, procedures, and services to the appropriate standards. In addition, it encourages perfection in terms of quality, legal, academic, and professional adherence.
The Code Core Values and Interpretive Statements
The code ensures that the members showcase good influential skills in terms of leadership and autonomy. Each member feels responsible and required to make appropriate decision in the process of service delivery. The section ensures that members are able to deal with health dynamics through constant education ( Olson & Stokes, 2016) . The profession should be a learning arena where members keep on learning new tactics to deal with new challenges. Through the value of advocacy, the section instills the sense of responsibility in members. Members are required to take charge and be the ambassadors of good healthcare. Through professionalism, members get to adhere to the accepted standards of service provision to ensure that patients get quality healthcare. Through the value of care, healthcare providers must show compassion to help patients. Next, the value of diversity requires members to appreciate that different cultures exist in different perspectives such as race and social status. However, nurses should not discriminate patients based on their backgrounds.
Towards a Strong Virtue Ethics for Nursing Practice
The article Towards a Strong Virtue Ethics for Nursing Practice appreciates the fact that situations of patients are characterized by negative feelings such as fear, powerlessness, anxiety, and vulnerability. Consequently, the emotions may trigger poor relationships between nurses and patients. It advocates for the need to establish therapeutic responses to deal with the relationship. The author calls for the focus on persons and character traits rather than actions ( Armstrong, 2006) . The author affirms that moral virtues play a major role in reinforcing a good relationship between nurses and patients. The author suggests three main features of ethical practices in nursing. They include the use of moral wisdom, judgment, and moral virtues. The author farther explains that nurses who embrace the suggestions are likely to avert possible marginalization and achieve patient satisfaction while establishing an effective relationship. The author whose main focus is relational ethics seeks to advance on research based on virtue ethics.
I agree with the authors recommendations on nursing ethics. States of patients show situations that could trigger fear and powerlessness. Nurses have the obligation of giving the right approach to such instances. As the author asserts, ethical practice does not emphasize on actions but persons and their character. Indeed, many nurses are more concerned with quality actions rather than the emotions they express while giving their services ( Armstrong, 2006) . The article engages nurses to consider their relationship therapeutic to the medical response of situations of patients. Nurses have the responsibility of embracing moral virtues such as compassion and love. That does not only give relief to patients but also establishes an effective environment for working. The use of judgment and moral wisdom gives nurses the mandate to express themselves in the most appropriate manner.
References
Armstrong, A. E. (2006). Towards a strong virtue ethics for nursing practice. Nursing Philosophy , 7 (3), 110-124.
Beth Epstein PhD, R. N. (2015). The Nursing Code of Ethics: Its Value, Its History. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing , 20 (2), 33.
Olson, L. L., & Stokes, F. (2016). The ANA code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: Resource for nursing regulation. Journal of Nursing Regulation , 7 (2), 9-20.
