NSE 112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Health Professional, Patient Advocacy, Professional Negligence In English Law
WEEK 6 NOTETAKING: Professionalism, ethical practice and legal issues in nursing practice.
What does ethics mean?
- Ethics is the study of the philosophical ideals of right & wrong behavior based on what
you think you ought (or ought not) to do.
- Ethics are the oral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an
activity.
- Ethics involve choices, evaluations, reasoning.
- Simply, it is about determining “right” and “wrong”. Sometimes the difference between
right and wrong is clear and not controversial
- Ethics is not simply descriptive
- There has always been recognition that there are “good” beliefs, behaviors, and ways of
reasoning.
- Need to exercise careful reason in approaching ethical problems.
Codes of Ethics
- One of the characteristics of a profession
- Defined by the profession
o 2 main purposes
- Informs professionals about expectations around ethical issues
- Informs the public of the underlying values of the profession.
• Ethical dilemmas or conflicts
− When 2 or more ethical values apply to a situation, but the values support diverging
courses of action.
• Ethical distress
− May be experienced by nurses when they know the “right” thing to do but are
constrained from doing it.
What are contributing factors to the complexity of ethical and legal issues?
- Patient advocacy movements
- Increase in nursing scope of practice and responsibility
- Attention to issues of professional negligence
- Life-sustaining technology
- Increasing public interest in health care
- New policies, regulations, laws.
CNO Ethical Framework
- Values in providing nursing care in CNO framework:
• Client well being
• Client choice
• Privacy and confidentiality
• Respect for life
• Maintaining commitment
• Truthfulness
• Fairness
CAN Nursing Values & Ethical Responsibilities
1. Providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care
2. Promoting health and well being
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3. Promoting and respecting informed decision making
4. Honouring dignity
5. Maintaining privacy and confidentiality
6. Promoting justice
7. Being accountable
Bioethics: the ethics of medical and biological research.
- General term for principled reasoning across health care professions
- Moral decision making in health care should be guided by four principles
1. Autonomy
2. Beneficence
3. Nonmaleficence
4. Justice
1. Autonomy
o The right to freely choose for oneself
o Choices should be based on full understanding, free of controlling influences
o Patients need to be included in all aspects of decision making regarding their care
o Patient’s right to choose between options (autonomy) may conflict with what health
care providers recommend.
2. Beneficence (자선, 은혜, 선행)
o Doing or promoting good for others
o Acting with beneficence requires that the best interests of the patient remain more
important than self-interest
o The obligation of the health care provider to do good and promote the welfare of
clients through advocacy.
3. Nonmaleficence (해악금지, 무해성의 원칙)
o Avoiding harm or hurt
o This is NOT the same as “doing good”
o Health care provider tries to balance the risks and benefits of treatment while trying
to lease the lease possible for the patient.
4. Justice
o Fairness
o When there is competition for a scarce resource, justice mandates that decisions be
fair and unbiased (to greatest extent possible)
o Social justice
- The fair distribution of society’s benefits, responsibilities and their consequences. It
focuses on the relative position of one social group to others in society as well as on the
root causes of disparities and what can be done to eliminate them)
Regulatory law: nursing
- Established to protect the public
- Defines scope of practice of nursing
- Governs standards of care and controlled acts
- Students much adhere to the same standards of practices as RNs
- In Ontario, legislative framework for nurses is provided by
• Nursing Act, 1991
• Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991
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Document Summary
Week 6 notetaking: professionalism, ethical practice and legal issues in nursing practice. Ethics is the study of the philosophical ideals of right & wrong behavior based on what you think you ought (or ought not) to do. Ethics are the oral principles that govern a person"s behavior or the conducting of an activity. Simply, it is about determining right and wrong . Sometimes the difference between right and wrong is clear and not controversial. There has always been recognition that there are good beliefs, behaviors, and ways of reasoning. Need to exercise careful reason in approaching ethical problems. One of the characteristics of a profession. Defined by the profession: 2 main purposes. Informs the public of the underlying values of the profession: ethical dilemmas or conflicts. When 2 or more ethical values apply to a situation, but the values support diverging courses of action: ethical distress.
