NMC

Ethical And Moral Dilemmas Faced by Nurses and NMC legislation



Ethical And Moral Dilemmas Faced by Nurses and NMC legislation

Introduction

 An ethical dilemma can be considered as a mental state where a nurse has make a choice out of all the available options, while attending a patient. Nurses are trained with the objective of providing quality nursing care to patients with the assistance of technology. However, emphasis must also be there to provide knowledge and skills to nurses so that they can help diagnose ethical situations in health care and address them efficiently. On the other hand, nurses often face situations where they would be unable to decide on the correct course of treatment or action as their values and beliefs conflicts with the interests of the patient. (Cuzzell, 2009)

 In critical medical complications, family members often find it difficult to decide on the best treatment option. In these situations, assistance from well-qualified and trained nurses can be sought for obtaining critical information and support. In another situation, a nurse needs to administer a life-saving drug to a patient undergoing treatment in the critical care unit, but is not directed to do so. There are numerous such instances of ethical dilemmas in nursing. Nurses are expected to be benevolent, truthful, maintain confidentiality, respect the patient's individuality and autonomous so as to be ethical. (www.nmc-uk.org)

Ethical And Moral Dilemmas Faced by Nurses

Nurses are increasingly confronted with situations of moral difficulty, such as not to feed terminally ill patients, whistle blowing, or participation in termination of pregnancy. Most of these moral dilemmas are often analyzed using the principle-based approach which applies the four moral principles of justice, autonomy, beneficence, and non-malificence. In some instances, consequentialism is considered, but these frameworks have their limitations. Their limitations has to do with a consideration for the interpersonal nature of clinical nursing practice on the one hand, and is not always clear on how to judge which consequences are best on the other hand. When principles are in conflict it is not always easy to decide which principle should dominate. Furthermore, these frameworks do not take into account the importance of the interpersonal and emotional element of human experience. On the contrary, decision-making about moral issues in healthcare demands that nurses exercise rational control over emotions. (Miller, 2008)

Medical malpractice is one of the ethical issues in nursing. Medical malpractice has attracted the attention of people and the media all over the world. Malpractice cases are tried according to both criminal and civil law. Medical malpractice issues have received widespread coverage in the media in many countries. (Thomas, 2008)Nurses play an important role in the provision of health services. As in other professions, nurses and midwives have to take heavy responsibilities. Failure to fulfill these responsibilities results in charges of negligence that can lead to malpractice lawsuits. Malpractice can be defined as lack of knowledge or experience, or the negligent performance of duties that result in patient injury (i.e. failure to provide acceptable levels of health ...