Running Head: MISSION AND ETHICS IN HEATH CARE
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MISSION AND ETHICS IN HEATH CARE 7
Mission and Ethics in Health Care
Joanna Kowalczuk
North Park University
School of Nursing
Introduction
Nurses play an essential role in ensuring that the patients receive the health care in the required manner. Their conduct and the way they display their professional skills has a significant impact on the patient’s life. A professional nurse gives a patient the priority and attends to their needs. Nurses provide emotional support to patients as well as interact with them through the provision of care.
The Mission of Health Care
It is essential that nurses are aware of their professional ethics and the moral principles of their work (Norton, 2008). Nurses accomplish different duties in their profession and the primary task that they are entitled to carry out is the commitment to promote the health and the well-being of the people in the society. American Nurses Association “Code of Ethics for Nurses” emphasizes the safety of the patient most of all. Another element in the Code of Ethics is that nurses should provide services to patients with respect and dignity regardless of race, nationality, social status, and religion among others (Jill et al., 2016). As an employee of NCH, nurses integrate “Code of Ethics for Nurses” with the mission of the hospital which states that “we exist to improve the health of the communities we serve and to meet individuals’ healthcare needs.”
The professional nursing ethics
Ethical values governing nursing profession are based on ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses and American College of Health Care of Health Care Executives Code of Ethics. Both, ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses and ACHE Code of Ethics are statements of the obligation of healthcare profession towards society as well as individual patients/clients. They have many similarities. First of all, both emphasize the need for ethical behavior in the daily practice of medicine and advocating for the patient. Both codes encourage compliance with laws and regulations to ensure the best outcomes for the patients. Also, both, ANA and ACHE Codes obligate their members to reports discrepancies between the rules and the practice. Competence is also an essential attribute that governs the nursing profession. If a nurse is not able to carry out the exercise of pain management on a client in the right manner for lack of knowledge, he/she will prove to lack the emotional elements that show a caring nurse. The caring requires the nurse to have a deep connection to the self and the patient.
The moral principles governing nursing
The nursing profession has four moral principles which include autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-maleficence (Brunner & Smeltzer, 2010).The principle of autonomy is considered and adhered to when health officers attending to a patient, respect patient’s autonomy in decision making. Nurses play a crucial role in helping patients to make an educated decision. It is the role of the nurse to render justice. This principle states that every patient has an equal moral standing and should be treated equally. Non-maleficence is demand for a patient’s protection. Patients should not be harmed either deliberately or non-deliberately. The other principle of beneficence emphasizes on doing good for the patients.
Dealing with ethical issues in nursing practice
Ethical dilemmas are common in the nursing profession. For instance, the patient’s wishes may conflict with the nurse’s opinion, the facility’s policies, the family desire, and also the laws of the state. Such a situation may prove difficult solving because the Code of Ethics calls for nurses to make their first allegiance to the patients (Jill et al., 2016). However, the client may be violating the policy of the institution and may give the nurse a hard time to make the right choice. Nurses must approach the ethical dilemmas with an open mind and free of bias. Every nurse should be familiar with the ANA Code of Ethics and apply it on a daily basis dealing with clients. In addition, every hospital has an Ethics Committee available for consult when conflicts remain unsolved when dealing with on interpersonal level.
My personal and professional goals
My personal goal is to spend more quality time with my daughter to help her through her freshman year in high school. Much as I love my job I give my daughter the priority in my life because when she is doing well, my spirits at work are high. On the other hand, my professional target is to complete BSN in designated time and then start MSN program to become Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. I have had ten years of experience working with patients, which great majorities of them are elderly. I enjoy working with elders and helping them, and I am good at it. Becoming Geriatric nurse practitioner would be a smooth transition from my current Registered Nurse role.
How my mission relates to the profession
My mission will be being an advocate for elderly patients. The alarming number of the elderly do not get much-needed help. The little that they have, might disqualify them from getting help from the state. Either they do not have a family or family is too busy to care for them. Seniors need an advocate to navigate through today’s complicated health system. In a health care setting, nurses encounter moral and ethical decisions pertaining their patients. They help the patients in decision making on issues that have proven difficult.
My moral convictions
Every person has different morals convictions, values, and principles as they carry out their work. My moral convictions to any work that I am assigned to, is that I give my best and ensure that it is completed. As I carry out these duties, I am guided by integrity, professionalism, and honesty. I have compassion for others, and I believe this is the reason why I chose nursing as my profession. My guiding principle is independence which along with other values that I consider truthful, make me believe in myself and do what is right.
How to solve ethical issues in my career
To solve any ethical conflict in my career, for instance, a misunderstanding with one of my patients, I always take quality time to discuss the matter into details and see the possible way to resolve it without hurting any of the parties. The goal is that we arrive at a concrete solution fairly, and one way is to be accountable for one’s mistakes. When practicing nursing profession, one is liable of committing mistakes. In case it happens, it is necessary to own it by admitting it, without causing more problems. According to Husted et al. (2015), a nurse should have the moral courage to interact with a situation and apply strategies that will help them approach a resolution to the distress. Every nurse should be familiar with the ANA Code of Ethics and apply it on a daily basis in dealing with clients. In case a nurse and a client clash in one way or another and they do not resolve their differences, they should hand the case to the ethics experts available in any hospital. The ethics committee will ensure that the matter is dealt with based on the Code of Ethics and is fairly resolved.
Conclusion
When a person chooses to be a nurse, they have made a moral commitment to take care of the patients. The decision is later integrated with the Code of Ethics to make sure that patients are treated with care. Caring is ethical, and when a patient is well cared for, the respect is to the nurse who was caring for that patient. Ethical care means an exercise of combining the attitudes, activities and the knowledge of the situation. Good nurses provide good quality care through the policies and should be guided by ethics and morals which will see them attain their mission.
References
Brunner, L. S., & Smeltzer, S. C. O. C. (2010). Brunner & Suddarth’s textbook of medical-
surgical nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Fowler, M. D. M., & American Nurses Association. (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for
nurses: Interpretation and application. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association.
Husted, G. L., Husted, J. H., Scotto, C. J., Wolf, K. M., & Husted, J. H. (2015). Bioethical
decision making in nursing.
Winland-Brown, J, Vicki, L., D. Elizabeth & O’Connor S. (2016). Ethics, Law
and Policy: The New ‘Code of Ethics for Nurse with Interpretive Statements’ (2015):
Practical Clinical Application, Part I
NCH Mission Statement
