Nursing Ethics Case Study

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Introduction A code of conduct is the professional foundation by which every occupation should stand by. Its purpose is to provide ethical and legal guidance to all the members of the profession and it describes how one should act in complex roles and situations. The profession of nursing is best described as the protection, promotion, and development of health and well-being through the alleviation of suffering by identifying appropriate prognosis and treatment to improve the care of individuals and society as a whole. Ethics is the basis of nursing practice and it plays an important role on how health care professionals can achieve those objectives. The nurse is expected to practice kindness and respect, which helps guide our decisions to …show more content…
Section 3.1 of Provision 3 of the Code of Ethics for Nurses describes the idea that nurses are the main advocates to promote and provide individuals their right to privacy and confidentiality (ANA, 2011). The patient’s privacy should always be promoted by providing an environment with enough physical privacy. This can be achieve by making sure that the doors or curtains are closed when a patient is receiving a bed bath, performing wound care, or simply when having any treatments or diagnostic tests executed. It is also important to provide privacy to protect information and policies in regards to the patient’s personal records. For example, discussing personal records of a patient with another health care provider in a public place such as the cafeteria, hospital’s elevator, and even the hallways. It is our ethical and legal obligation as health care professionals to respect and defend those rights towards our patient’s personal …show more content…
It is the registered nurses primary responsibility to take accountability of their own practice. Responsibility refers to the specific accountability or liability associated with the performance of duties of a particular role (ANA, 2011). Some of the responsibilities involved are teaching, researching, and administrating. In every aspect, the nurse holds responsibility for the quality of care by putting aside the level of authority of the nurse. For example, Nurse Practitioners have the authority to issue prescriptions and implement treatment to be carried out by other nurses. The main idea behind this is that both the advanced nurse issuing the order and the nurse carrying out the order are responsible for the decisions made and accountable for the course of action

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