Career Blog 101

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MY NURSING ETHIC

The ultimate reason why you are in this profession is primarily your choice. There is no doubt that your decision encompasses all other options that you had in mind prior to picking up one of the most time demanding jobs of all time. It is never by chance that you see yourself in that white uniform, attending to patients who complain from either a simple back pain to the complexity of suffering from shortness of breath.

Looking at how sick people need immediate medical attention, being a nurse is not only a calling but also a way of life. Even when you’re not in the hospital, your connection to the patients you have attended becomes intense because you will always talk about them with your friends and share with your family how you gave a smile to a child right after dressing his wounds because of scraping his knees from playing or on how an old, immobile fellow gave you a sincere “thank you”, after you gave him a glass of water in his hospital bed.

You don’t exercise exclusivity in dealing with patients because you will serve people from different walks of life, regardless of age or social status. Being of service to people who experience pain and discomfort is your utmost concern and your first priority after all. You are indeed considered one of the most vital individuals in the healthcare system because aside from the doctor, you are in the frontline battle of saving the lives of those who had lost their hope of getting well and those who think that life is sometimes cruel in this cruel and uncertain world.

You act or decide accordingly using what you have learned in the nursing theory and practice way back in nursing school and apply the philosophy of medicine and healthcare in your everyday dealings with your patients. You move to and fro from your station to the wards because you are not only paid to work for what the nursing profession is asking you but also because you put yourself in the shoes of the sick and the needy. Empathy is a defining factor in how you will be able to work efficiently and effectively. Your presence in the hospital is not merely a simple act of goodness, but also an instrument with which you impart extra care and love to your patients. Without these things, you should start asking yourself questions like,  “Why am I here?” or “Why am I doing this?”

Registered nurses have understood the terms accountability and obligation in their chosen career. They must do their job by acting on a situation they believe they can handle or manage. Unlike the doctor, the nurses’ role on the patient has its limitations. In situations where there is a critical decision to be undertaken, the nurse has to refer it to the attending physician using the patient’s clinical chart. He or she just cannot act on it immediately because there is a tendency that he may make a wrong impression of the patient’s case which will result to complications, added injuries or even worst, death.

(Crossan and Robb, 1998), in their article entitled Role of the nurse: introducing theories and concepts, published on The British Journal of Nursing , quoted (Antrobus, 1993) stating that the role of the nurse is not easily defined with theorists from within the profession failing to agree on the exact nature of nursing.

Likewise, in the same journal (Crossan and Robb, 1998) also added that someplace the emphasis of the role on the concept of caring (Kitson, 1987), and therapy (McMahon, 1991; Pearson, 1992), while others indicate that the role is more diagnostic and technical, remaining disease-centred rather than person-centered (Bortoff and D’Cruz, 1984).

With these credible references, it becomes clear that the nurse can actually provide first aid ( simple wounds, cuts or bruises ) and suggest or recommend medicines (i.e. without prescription ) on simple cases like headache, fever, and flu. In a similar way, these signs and symptoms are still referred to the physician for further and clearer clinical impression and diagnosis.

In another development, the knowledge and the skills that the nurse has acquired from the academe and his actual on-the-job training in the community are put to the test when he is placed in a situation he doesn’t want to be. In an article published by the Canadian Nurses Association, under the heading  Ethics in Practice for Registered Nurses (October 2003 ISSN NUMBER 1480-9990), they paid special attention to Ethical Distress in Healthcare Environments. Ethical distress involves situations in which nurses cannot fulfill their ethical obligations and commitments, or they fail to pursue what they believe to be the right course of action, or fail to live up to their own expectations  of ethical practice…( Webster and Baylis, 2000).

This event only shows that the nurse is only human who is prone to commit mistakes or errors. It could be an error of judgment, insufficient personal resolve, or other circumstances truly beyond their control. (Webster and Baylis, 2000).

All of these distresses or dilemmas can and will be stopped or minimized if the nurse uses his presence of mind and allows his focus on both the patient and the problem being to be resolved. Multitasking skills can greatly help in addressing ethical dilemmas.