Ethics in Nursing Practice

Ethics in Nursing

• Ethics provides an ordered set of moral standards to assess what is morally right and wrong in nursing practice.
• The term "ethics" is derived from the Greek "ethos", meaning custom or character, and Arabic "Akhlaq".

Types of Ethics

• Health Ethics: moral decision-making situations in the practice of medicine and health.
• Bioethics: concerns from diverse fields including health, medicine, law, philosophy, biotech, and life sciences.
• Islamic Ethics: right principles and values based on Islamic sources, including Al-Quran's teachings and Prophet Muhammad's Sunnah.
• Nursing Ethics: professional standards of conduct practiced by nurses related to moral behavior in providing healthcare services.

Purpose of Ethics in Nursing

• Facilitate nurses to make informed decision-making.
• Enhance quality of care and patient safety by minimizing the risk of harm.
• Ensure safe and effective delivery of care.
• Prioritize patient welfare and advocacy.
• Ensure nurses comply with legal and regulatory compliance.
• Develop a sense of personal fulfillment, satisfaction, and professional integrity.

Ethical Theories

Utilitarian Theory

• Focuses on the results of action and treats intentions as irrelevant.
• Right actions ought to produce the greatest happiness or pleasure for the greatest number of people.
• Ought to always produce the maximal balance of positive value over disvalue.
• Acts are considered right if they bring about more pleasure than pain, and wrong if they produce more pain than pleasure.
• Difficult to prove what counts as good, as one's good may be another's bad and vice versa.
• Ignores concerns on human rights and justice, especially to the minority population.

Deontology Theory

• Obligations that they are bound to follow, regardless of the consequences.
• Duties may be derived from: religious beliefs, societal norms, or rational principles.
• Can lead to absolutism and inability to adapt to complex situations.
• May fail to provide practical solutions or guidance in morally complex situations, leaving individuals unsure of how to act when faced with moral uncertainty.

Virtue Ethics Theory

• Emphasizes the development of moral character and virtues as the key to ethical behavior.
• Encourages nurses to develop good moral virtues such as compassion, empathy, honesty, integrity, and professionalism.
• Nurses are encouraged to prioritize the needs and interests of patients, advocate for vulnerable populations, and work towards creating environments that support the development of virtuous characters.

International Code of Nursing Ethics

• A statement of ethical values, responsibilities, and professional accountabilities of nurses and nursing students that defines and guides ethical nursing practice within different roles nurses assume.
• Serves as a framework for ethical nursing practice and decision-making to meet professional standards set by regulatory bodies.
• A succinct statement of the ethical values, obligations, duties, and professional ideals of nurses individually and collectively.