An ethical challenge that arises often with these nurses when trying to practice nonmaleficence is when discharging the babies after the symptoms of withdrawal are gone and they have been sufficiently weaned from Methadone or Morphine or another pharmacologic agent used in weaning babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (Maguire, Webb, Passmore, and Cline, 2012). Often times, these babies go home to their mothers who are addicted to illegal (and sometimes legal) substances leaving the nurses to wonder how the mothers will care for them or if the baby will be neglected or later develop addictive behaviors as they may learn growing up in that type of environment (Maguire, Webb, Passmore, and Cline, 2012). The nurse’s concerns are legitimate; however, a harm reduction frame of mind is necessary to improve and build trust with these types of patients (Ford, 2011). Utilizing the idea of reducing harm with these patients, the integral and initial step would be total acceptance of who the patient is in that moment of time with their addiction and atypical lifestyle (Ford, 2011). Although the idea of minimizing harm by way of total acceptance is difficult on the nurse’s part, it acts to aid in reducing the negative stigma and bias that the nurse may experience when caring for these types of patients (Ford, 2011).
