Nursing Ethics: Beneficence

Course Overview

• The course provides an understanding of moral issues, professional ethics in nursing, and ethical challenges in nursing practice.
• The course aims to enhance nursing practice by exploring the role of ethics in addressing moral issues and dilemmas.

Learning Objectives

• Define the concept of ethics in nursing and its importance in professional practice.
• Understand the origins and meaning of ethics, particularly within the context of nursing.
• Explore the role of ethics in addressing moral issues and dilemmas encountered in nursing practice.

Core Ethical Principles of Nursing Practice

• Four key principles are generally recognized:
  • Non-maleficence
  • Beneficence
  • Autonomy
  • Justice

Non-maleficence

• Means "do no harm."
• Any action should not cause unnecessary harm or suffering to the patient.
• Includes both physical and psychological harm.
• Evidence-based practice is vital to minimize the risk of harm.
• Nurses must appraise the risk to the individual and use interventions and treatments to minimize risk and maximize benefits.
• Examples: stopping a medication that is causing harmful side effects, discontinuing a treatment strategy that is not effective and may be harmful.

Beneficence

• Means "do good" and promotes actions that benefit the patient.
• Nurses should support patients during their healing and recovery.
• Applies to all care processes, including administering medication and providing patients with information and education.
• There is often a need to balance the potential for a treatment to do good and do harm, particularly when administering drugs with side effects or in patients with complex care needs.

Autonomy

• States that patients should be able to act independently and should be in control of their fate.
• Patients should make decisions regarding their care or act intentionally, without being controlled or excessively forced.
• Nurses may try to influence patients to adopt a particular treatment strategy when that is the strategy with the strongest evidence base, but must not prevent patients from making their own decisions.
• Example: presenting all treatment options to a patient and providing them with sufficient information to make an informed choice in concert with medical advice.

Justice

• Entails obligations to act in a manner considered equitable, fair, and consistent with the rights of the individual.
• This is true even where family members of the patient may have an interest in the information; for instance, if a patient admits to substance abuse but does not wish their family to know.
• Confidentiality is complex; it is not always possible, or ethical, to withhold information from other parties when engaging in patient care.
• When the patient poses a risk of severe harm to themselves or others, the nurse may be obliged to share confidential information with members of law enforcement or associated professionals.
• Similarly, if the patient reveals medical information that may place others at risk, it is the duty of the nurse to consider their ethical obligation to protect the rights of the patient, balanced with the rights of others or society in general.