Historical events have had significant contributions to the development of the code of ethics of nurses in our healthcare system. One of the incidents occurred in 1956 when nurses visited an institution with mentally disabled children in Staten Island, New York, to investigate hepatitis’ natural history and determine the effectiveness of gamma globulin for inoculation against hepatitis (Hicks, 2014). They intentionally infected the children with a mild form of hepatitis. The study was supported on the supposition that the majority of the newly admitted children would contract the disease within the first 6-12 months. Despite seeking the parents’ permission before the study, the researchers did not adequately inform the parents about the risks involved. Another event occurred in 1963 when researchers deliberately injected live cancer cells into senile patients without informing them. In this case, the scientists thought that the patients’ bodies would reject cells, and so they did not notify the patients to avoid frightening them (Hicks, 2014).
In the event of injecting children with a mild form of hepatitis, it led to the ethical problem of exploiting vulnerable groups, putting pressure on parents to volunteer their children, and also not providing the parents with adequate information. The event, therefore, influenced the development of self-determination, justice, and protection of human rights as a code of ethics for nurses when discharging duties (Kangasniemi et al., 2015). The second event created the ethical problems of lack of informed consent and the use of vulnerable group subjects. This event led to the development of nonmaleficence, veracity, and beneficence as codes of conduct for nurses (White et al., 2015). The two historical events are some of the factors that influenced the development of regulations to improve the nursing profession and healthcare research in the world. Today, the ethical codes of conduct are important for protecting patients from unethical practices by healthcare practitioners.
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References
Hicks, L. (2014). Chapter 1: History and ethical principles . University of Miami .
https://www.ctspedia.org/wiki/pub/ResearchEthics/HumanSubjectProtectionSocialBehavioralSciencesModule2b/HSPsocbeh_Module_2b_Pittsburgh-50_pages.pdf
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: An integrative review. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 71 (8), 1744-1757. doi: 10.1111/jan.12619 ·
White, J., Phakoe, M., & Rispel, L. C. (2015). ‘Practice what you preach’: Nurses’ perspectives on the code of ethics and service pledge in five South African hospitals. Global Health Action , 8 (1), 26341. https:// doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.26341
