Ethical Practices in Patient Care for Ethics -myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theEthical Practices in Patient Care for Ethics. Answer: Ethical practices are essential in patient care because they outline a set of actions and decisions that must be implemented for the good of the patient. They help to ensure that each person is given the best level of care and attention. Ethics serve as a moral compass that makes nurses to administer patient care in a fair and timely manner. They guide health professionals in making the right decisions in difficult situations. This is achieved when ethical guidelines provide a solution to a moral dilemma that a nurse could be facing when attending to a patient. Additionally, ethical practices ensure that health practitioners attend to all patients with justice and fairness, and that they provide them with optimum comfort(BulmanSchutz, 2013). Under the principle of justice, health providers are required to make medical decisions taking all matters of fairness into consideration. This helps to ensure that there is equal distribution of scarce medical resources among patients. Also, it requires that they uphold all applicable legislations when making medical decisions that affect a patients outcome (Krautschield,2017). Further, ethical practices help to ensure that a patient maintains control over their body and health by advocating for autonomy. A health practitioner may advise or make suggestions to a patient but they should never coerce or persuade them to make a certain decision. Therefore, a patient is allowed to make their own decisions independently according to their personal beliefs and values (McLeod-Sordjan, 2014). For instance, when a patient has a terminal illness, a nurse knows that it is in the best interests of a patient to proceed according to the patients personal interests and will. Ethics dictate that care providers must follow a doctors instructions and provide care in a safe way. They are compelled to point out issues with scheduled care or to alert the relevant professionals on problems that a patient may face so as to achieve better outcomes (Chism, 2015). Moreover, ethical practices help to ensure that nurses do all that is possible to benefit a patient under any circumstance. The beneficence principle dictates that all health procedures must be carried out with the intention to do the best for an individual. Therefore, medical practitioners are required to develop knowledge and skills that will enable them to execute the best medical procedures that are tailored for each patients case (Ellis, 2017). During my clinical placement, I had an experience whereby a 14-year old female came into the health facility claiming that she had been assaulted by her step-father. Upon full medical examination, I discovered that she had been raped and immediately gave her the necessary medical attention. As I was filing a report of the incident, the patient requested that the matter should not be disclosed to the authorities or her mother. Her reasons were that she was afraid of what her step-father would do if he found out that she had reported the incident. This placed me in a moral dilemma since the ethical principles require that a patients autonomy is respected. Conversely, the law requires health professionals to report assault cases especially that of minors to legal authorities(Johnstone, 2015).As the care provider in charge, I went ahead and filed a report with the authorities including my findings of the medical examination. The ethical principles related to this case are autonomy, justice and beneficence. As per the principle of justice, it dictates that medical practitioners must uphold the applicable legislations and laws to a particular situation when making decisions(Solari-Twadwell, 2017). Therefore, I was required by the law to report this matter to the legal authorities so that the matter could be investigated and justice brought upon the perpetrator. The other principle is beneficence which dictates that health professionals must do all things possible that will benefit and bring good to a patient in a particular situation. In this case, the patient required medical attention after her assault. Additionally, reporting the matter to the legal authorities was in an attempt to do good to the patient by having the authorities deal with the perpetrator and bring justice to the victim. Lastly, the principle of autonomy is involved whereby the patient wanted her decision of maintaining confidentiality and privacy about the assault respected (Mallari, Grace Joseph, 2016). According to my own thoughts, I believe that as the nurse in the case, I acted within the ethical guidelines pertaining to patient care. To begin with, I accorded the necessary medical attention to the patient. Therefore, I upheld the beneficence principle of nursing. It was also in the patients best interest that the perpetrator of the crime be brought to justice so that the patient would feel safe and never have to undergo such an ordeal ever again. Reporting a case of child abuse and sexual assault on a minor especially by a parent means that one is prioritizing the patients best interest(Bowrey Thompson, 2014). As of the principle of autonomy, ethical practices of patient care dictated that I had to respect the patients decision of keeping the matter private. It is important that pre-teens and adolescents believe that their confidentiality and privacy will be respected by health care providers. This will encourage them to always seek medical attention whenever they find themselves facing such problems. However, the legal guidelines override this principle as they require the care provider to report such a case of assault especially where a minor is involved(Morton, Fontaine,Hudak Gallo, 2017). I also believe that I upheld the principle of justice by reporting a step father who was sexually assaulting a minor. Therefore, I am of the opinion that I upheld the necessary ethical principles and this ensured that I delivered care to a minor patient in the best way possible. References Bowrey, S., Thompson, J. P. (2014). Nursing research: ethics, consent and good practice. Nursing times, 110(1-3), 20-23. Bulman, C., Schutz, S. (Eds.). (2013). Reflective practice in nursing. John Wiley Sons. Chism, L. A. (2015). The doctor of nursing practice. Jones Barlett Publishers. Ellis, P. (2017). Understanding ethics for nursing students. Learning Matters. Johnstone, M. J. (2015). Bioethics: a nursing perspective. Elsevier Health Sciences. Krautschield, L. C. (2017). Embedding Micro Ethical Dilemmas in High-Fidelity Simulation Scenarios: Preparing Nursing Students for Ethical Practice. Journal of Nursing Education,56(1), 55-58. Mallari, M. S. N., Grace, M., Joseph, D. (2016). Ethical Frameworks for Decision-Making in Nursing Practice and Research: An Integrative Review. McLeod-Sordjan, R. (2014). Evaluating moral reasoning in nursing education. Nursing ethics, 21(4), 473-483. Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C. M., Gallo, B. M. (2017). Critical care nursing: a holistic approach. Lipincott Williams Wilkins. Solari-Twadwell, P. A. (2017). Ethical Decision Making and Moral Choices: A Foundation for Nursing Practice. Issues and Trends in Nursing, 347.