let's discuss the topic of ethics values in nursing care now while in your nursing practice or maybe even even in your clinical rotation you may face an ethical dilemma so we're going to discuss a little bit about this today so before we get started let's define actually what we're talking about between values morals and ethics when we talk about values really we define that as our own personal principles and ideas that really help us decide what's right and what's wrong now this is different from morals where this is where actual beliefs that are formed out
of our core values in this context helps drive the rules that govern our behavior and lastly ethics are those moral principles that help direct our behavior and how we apply their morals many times as a practicing nurse we are going to face ethical dilemmas so the a a code of ethics has provided us a framework to help us guide through those ethical dilemmas when we need to make a decision so we're going to take a look at some nursing attributes to make sure we keep ethics at the forefront of our care now at the top
of this graphic you see commitment to the client now this seems to make a lot of sense but many times we have our own personal values and beliefs that can sometimes impede the client's actual needs so this is a key piece to remember that we have to remain committed to the client now promoting and advocating for the health and wellness of the client is really important in regards to ethics and the advocacy piece is a typical action that we may need for an ethical dilemma now next we are responsible and accountable for all the care
that we give here's something we may not think about but engaging in advancing nursing practice now this can mean from advancing our degree our degree for example or just making sure that our knowledge base is current with the current nursing practice and the populations we serve now holistically nursing is something that we look at the dignity and uniqueness of the individual and interdisciplinary and collaborating with our health care team to promote wellness is important in regards to ethical care now when we're speaking about ethical dilemmas something to keep in mind that these actually occur when
values are going to conflict now to resolve these the opinions the facts and the values have to be identified and separated because practice requires nurses to respect the value of others but also do our best to respect our own personal values so as a practicing nurse there are many times that you're going to run into a healthcare ethical dilemma here are four big topics that you may face in your practice the first one being quality of life this is going to include end of life care cancer therapy physician assistant suicide and do not resuscitate one
example of this is many times this is where the nurse has to advocate for their patient such as with cancer therapy sometimes the patient may decide that they do not want to pursue treatment however the family members may feel otherwise again this is where advocacy for your patient must be the forefront for their clients needs next is genetic screening this could be detection of a gene that may not be causing symptoms or for which there is no cure this may come into play with maternal nursing for example now care at the end of life this
is something personally as a nurse that i have seen and had to navigate through this ethical dilemma so sustaining care when interventions are unlikely to sustain life now some of our interventions as you can imagine can be invasive and as a nurse this is things that we consider when we're performing these on our client also as a nurse many times we're thinking about these interventions may really result in a poor quality of life to help keep the patient alive and that's something personally and many nurses out there may have faced and lastly is just access
to health care ensuring that all individuals have a right to care and for health and wellness and even just the resources they need to treat their illness so talking about moral distress this can be described as the anguish experience when a person feels unable that they can't act according to their own values so this is something we need to be aware of and how do we alleviate this well if we provide interdisciplinary ethics education this can give us the knowledge base of how to better prepare how to navigate these situations also just sharing those stories
with about professional perspectives and increasing that inner collaborative practice and again that's going to give you more perspectives in regards to an ethical dilemma now addressing clinical situations that bring about moral distress if you recall we talked about those four big domains of health care dilemmas that can be really important to talk about this beforehand because there's a good chance that you're going to face these in your practice and of course engaging in constructive conversations with peers or someone that you trust now let's talk about interprofessional collaboration many times when we're facing an ethical dilemma
we've got to remember that we have many people around us so building a consensus about a specific patient case can help us make a decision and guide us when we need to do so also a nurse's point of view offers a unique voice in the resolution of these dilemmas but often these decisions are made by collaborating with others you
