Articles
Ethics are incredibly important in nursing practice. It ensures that patients are being treated in a correct manner because a nurse is any person in charge of the personal health of another…it’s the act of using the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery…what nursing does, has to do with putting the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.” (Reed, Pamela G. & Crawford Shearer, N.B. 2011).
My personal, cultural, and spiritual beliefs all revolve around my origin. I was born, raised and it was always drilled into me that I should give it my best in everything. I have made it a point to give it my all when caring for patients and families in my Ethical relativism worldview and philosophy. Other values that contribute to my worldview and philosophy of nursing are integrity and responsibility. I try to be consistent with my actions, methods, principles, and expectations. Also, I have learned to take responsibility for everything I say and do. Although it can be hard to take the blame, I have understood that taking responsibility makes us work harder and helps us better attain our goals. These values have influenced my nursing practice in that when I care for a patient, I try to give the same quality of care I would want if I was in their place. Also, respect is an underrated discipline and showing respect to patients and family members will show to them that they matter and they are not just another patient.
The nursing practice is not just a vocation, but a call to care for people with humility and respect. I have the responsibility to be an honest, respectful, and hardworking nurse when the lives of other people are in my hands. Also, it is important to follow procedures and obey orders from doctors and physicians. Some of my values may conflict with my obligation to practice, creating an ethical dilemma but the patient obligation is ultimate. One of the main thing that all should know is that nurses are important people in someone’s life. The reason as to why I, a nurse is important to the life of a human being is that i will always be around in your life say birth, when you are ill, during the healing time, and even at your death. In nursing practices, ethical dimension should be taken care of in order to develop services that are of use to the patient, (Bernier, & Clavier, (2011).
Knowledge is one of the most important values towards nursing practices. The reason as to why I consider knowledge the most important personal value towards this profession is to ensure that nurses have understood patients in the right manner and also provide the relevant measures in providing recommendation towards a given situation. Personal values, spiritual values, as well as cultural value play a major role towards my nursing practice. Those values guide me in providing services that are equal to all so as to assist them achieve or get healed in the right manner.
My personal values are what attracted me to nursing as a profession. Knowing what I value provides me with a way to approach nursing. In addition, these values also provide me with something concrete to “check-in” with when making decisions about a client, administering medications, or providing interventions. I feel the value I admire most in myself is integrity.
Integrity to me, in its simplest terms, means doing what is right when no one is looking. As a nurse we are trusted with client’s lives on a daily basis. The task of handling and administering powerful medications is just one role the nurse must perform that demonstrates the importance of integrity. Integrity is the moral fiber of credibility if we allow our integrity to be compromised, as nurses, we put our clients in harm’s way while simultaneously damaging our profession as a whole.
Empathy places an emphasis on the client’s situation, perspective, and feelings. Incorporating empathy into the nursing practice enables you to understand what the client is going through providing the ability to help them in a therapeutic way. In my own experience in healthcare, I find that many healthcare providers lose sight of the value of empathy over their careers. They stop viewing the patient in the holistic manner of person, health, environment, pain, family and start seeing them as work. It is my culture as a nurse to not stop seeing the client as a person than seeing them as work.
Considering how these values articulate with the morals of society is an important factor when I am providing care for clients. For example, empathy is extremely important when I am dealing with the elderly because throughout generations, as people grow older, some believe that morals of society have degraded in comparison with the morals of their generation. My mannerism when dealing with elderly clients has had a direct effect on their respect for me as their healthcare provider which, in turn, has an effect on their environment and health. The ability to use empathy to accept the difference in others increases my ability to provide clients with a higher standard of care in the practice of nursing. (Fowler, & American Nurses Association. 2008). In the morals of society integrity correlates with honesty. The foundation of a moral person begins with honesty and while most of us may not consider our society completely honest the act of striving to be an honest person positively affects my environment and society.
The values, morals, and ethics in my obligation to nursing practice and the conflict with my obligation to practice, and or creating an ethical dilemma. I believe Autonomy, Beneficence, Fidelity, Informed consent, Integrity, Justice, No maleficence, Paternalism, Privacy and confidentiality, and Veracity are the core ethics, values and morals in my nursing practice. In my view, Autonomy refers to the patients’ rights to make self-governing decisions or self-determine a course of action. So regardless of my passion for my obligation, I must understand the patient decides what they want regardless of my opinion. Beneficence refers to the act of I the nurse doing what’s in the best interest of the patient for example mandatory reporting on certain communicable diseases. Fidelity is virtue that refers to integrity that is, remaining committed and keeping promises to patients. As a nurse, I must always act to prevent breaches of confidentiality. (Westrick, & Dempski, 2009).
As a catch lab nurse, I see people in vulnerable positions, who are scared, in pain, fearing the unknown, and trusting us to do what is right. I have a passion for educating patients and families, eliminating fears and assumptions by providing accurate information. As a personal value I make sure I have knowledge on such problems of patients to create a comfortable and trusting relation between the client and I. I make sure the patient attains the best of the doctor’s attention and facilities available so that they don’t feel cheated in any way because their mental state is vital in my profession.
In an ethical conflict I always practice reflecting on the values that predominate in the environment or culture I practice, I therefore make sure I attain an education, visit a professional counselor, or read as requirement for ethical thoughtfulness. I believe that individuals have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and that an individual’s rights are more important than a society’s. It is important to communicate between a patient/client and me because Lack of communication is more likely to occur when I the nurse care for international and culturally diverse persons. The resultant misunderstandings can lead to lack of respect for persons whose cultural values are different from my own and to potential and real harm to those persons, whether culturally, psychologically, physically, or spiritually. (Croxson, Hanney, & Buxton, 2009).
As a result of defining what values I possess as well as my concerns of nursing I have developed what my world view of the metaparadign concepts of nursing (person, health, environment, and nurse) means to me.
References
Fowler, M. D. M., & American Nurses Association. (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses: Interpretation and application. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association
Westrick, S. J., & Dempski, K. (2009). Essentials of nursing law and ethics. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers Bernier, N., & Clavier, C. (2011). Public health policy research: making the case for a political science approach. Health Promotion International, 26(1), 109-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daq079
Croxson, B., Hanney, S., & Buxton, M. (2009). Routine monitoring of performance: what makes health research and development different?. Journal Of Health Services Research & Policy,
Gray, B. (2003). AHCPR And The Changing Politics Of Health Services Research. Health Affairs. http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.w3.2836(4), 226-232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/1355819011927530