Nurses are crucial to the medical profession because they provide a substantial service to individual patients. Several factors included in the ethical arena of nursing includes, autonomy, informed consent, beneficence, privacy and confidentiality, and fidelity. The entire function of the nursing profession is to provide care for other individuals, which requires a special devotion to life in general.
“Autonomy is defined as the self-determination that is free from both controlling interferences by others and personal limitations preventing meaningfulchoice (such as inadequate understanding or faulty reasoning). Having the capacity to accecpt with autonomy does not guarantee that aperson will actually do so with full understanding and without external controlling influences” (n.d, 2015) Nurses practice autonomy by respecting and supporting a decision made by the patient. Patients have the right to make their own decisions about their health and …show more content…
The interest of the patient is an important factor in medical care because at times it may conflict with other ethical circumstances. An example of this is an abused spouse that is receiving care for an injury caused by another person. (Butts, 2002) The medical staff can involve law enforcement in the situation if the evidence is present of the abuse. This is a troublesome situation because the patient may not be willing to provide law enforcement with the information about the injury due to fear of more severe consequences.
Privacy and confidentiality is an important ethical principle for medical professionals. The patient’s privacy encompasses only sharing information on a need to know basis. Medical staff should not share personal medical information with others without obtaining the patients permission. HIPPA laws are structured to protect individual patients and are used by nurses regularly to avoid sharing unnecessary information. (HHS Staff,
“Autonomy is defined as the self-determination that is free from both controlling interferences by others and personal limitations preventing meaningfulchoice (such as inadequate understanding or faulty reasoning). Having the capacity to accecpt with autonomy does not guarantee that aperson will actually do so with full understanding and without external controlling influences” (n.d, 2015) Nurses practice autonomy by respecting and supporting a decision made by the patient. Patients have the right to make their own decisions about their health and …show more content…
The interest of the patient is an important factor in medical care because at times it may conflict with other ethical circumstances. An example of this is an abused spouse that is receiving care for an injury caused by another person. (Butts, 2002) The medical staff can involve law enforcement in the situation if the evidence is present of the abuse. This is a troublesome situation because the patient may not be willing to provide law enforcement with the information about the injury due to fear of more severe consequences.
Privacy and confidentiality is an important ethical principle for medical professionals. The patient’s privacy encompasses only sharing information on a need to know basis. Medical staff should not share personal medical information with others without obtaining the patients permission. HIPPA laws are structured to protect individual patients and are used by nurses regularly to avoid sharing unnecessary information. (HHS Staff,