Chapter 22 Ethics & Values Flashcards
(29 cards)
Values
Personal beliefs about the worth of a given idea, attitude, custom, or object that set standards that influence behavior.
Ethics
The study of conduct and character. It’s concerned with determining what is good or valuable for individuals and society at large
Define Autonomy
Commitment to include patients in decisions “supporting their decisions”
Beneficence
Taking positive actions to help others
Nonmaleficence
Avoidance of harm or hurt
Justice
Being fair
Fidelity
Agreement to keep promises
Professional nursing code of ethics
A set if guiding principles that all members of profession accept
Helps professional groups settle questions about practice or behavior
Professional code of ethics includes
Advocacy, responsibility, accountability, and confidentiality
Define advocacy
Supporting a cause. Advocate for health, safety, and rights of patients.
Responsibility
Willingness to respect ones professional obligations and follow through on promises. Responsible for your actions
Accountability
Ability to answer for ones actions
Confidentiality
Rights and privileges of patients for protection of privacy
How to process an ethical dilemma
Step1: ask if this is an ethical dilemma
2: gather all relevant information
3: clarify values
4: verbalize the problem
5: identify possible course of action
6: negotiate a plan
7: evaluate the plan
Institutional resources
Ethics committees are usual multidisciplinary and serve several purposes: education, policy recommendation, and cause consultation
Any person involved in an ethical dilemma, including nurses, physicians, health care providers, patients and family members, can request access to an ethics committee.
Issues in health care ethics: Quality of Life
Central to discussions about end of life care, cancer therapy, physician assisted suicide and DNR
Issues in health care ethics: Genetic Screening
What are the risks and benefits to individuals and to society of learning about the presence of a disease that had not yet caused symptoms or for which a cure is not yet available
Issues in health care ethics: Care At The End Of Life
Interventions unlikely to produce benefit for the patient
Issues in health care ethics: Access To Care
As a nurse, you certainly deal with ethical issues related to access to care
Ethics and Access to Care
- The number of uninsured in the United States grew from 39millions people in 2000 to more than 46.3millions people by 2008 more than 15% of population
- Many uninsured are women and children
- although 2/3 of the undisputed are poor, 80% are working families
Nurses collaborate with other professionals
Consensus building: an act of discovery in which “collective wisdom” guides a group to the best decision
- a nurses point of view offers a unique voice in the resolution of ethical dilemmas
Culturally Competent Care: End of Life Decisions
- Acknowledge of and respect for cultural differences
- Willingness to negotiate and compromise when world views differ
- Being aware of ones own values and biases
- Using communication skills that enhance empathy
- Knowing cultural practices of patient groups regularly seen
- understanding that all patients are individuals who may not share the same views as other within their own ethic group
Moral distress
Describes the anguish experienced when a person feels unable to act according to closely held core values
Define Depntology
Defines actions as right or wrong
