ETHICAL ISSUES FACED BY NURSES

Ethical Issues Faced By Nurses With New Technology In Health Care

Abstract

The application of ethics in the field of medicine has significantly broadened in the past few years. This is brought about by a number of factors like the advancement in medicine which is driven about by technology. Although there is nothing wrong with this, this has posed serious threats to the practice of medicine. This does not mean that in the past the medical and health care communities have been slack in their practice of ethical behavior but rather the changes have made significant ethical implications in the field of medicine and the delivery of health care. The practice of nursing, being in the front line of medical care, has also been subject to many ethical issues. In their daily work, nurses deal with intimate and fundamental human events such as birth, death, and suffering. They must decide the morality of their own actions own actions when they face the many ethical issues that surround such sensitive areas.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT2

INTRODUCTION4

HISTORY AND TRENDS ASSUMPTIONS4

Ethics in the Nursing Profession5

ORIGINS OF ETHICAL TROUBLES IN NURSING7

A. Social and Technological Changes7

B. Conflicting loyalties and obligations8

NURSING POINT OF VIEW9

Nursing Errors, Ethics, and the Law10

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SEEN ACTING ETHICALLY14

APPLICATION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SEEN ACTING ETHICALLY IN THE NURSING PROFESSION15

Scenario 1:15

Scenario 2:18

CONCLUSION21

REFERENCES23

ANNOATED BIBLIOGRAPHY25

Ethical Issues Faced By Nurses With New Technology In Health Care

Introduction

For this particular paper, the question as to why it is necessary to not only act ethically in the practice of nursing but to be seen to be acting ethically will be answered. This paper will use the author's own perception on the matter as well as literature derived from other sources. The paper will start off with an explanation of ethics and its application in the field of medicine and health care, with emphasis on the field of nursing. Furthermore, other aspects of ethics will also be discussed so as to help provide a better understanding of the whole concept of doing what is ethically right and the importance of being seen while doing what is ethically right.



History and Trends Assumptions

Ethics is the study of good conduct, character, and motives. It is concerned with determining what is good or valuable for all people. Ethics is the investigation of what kind of individual one "should" be or how one "should" act. Awell-recognized premise of such exploration is that "ought suggests can." In other phrases, in saying that someone should to do X or that X is the ethical thing for him to do, we are assuming that it is really possible for him to doX. There is no lesson obligation to do the impossible. It does not help us in portraying ethically to consider if we have a moral obligation to do certain thing that, quite easily, we cannot do. This is true in health care as it is in other areas of our lives (Mathes, ...