Extraordinary Care - Ethics in Nursing

By Karen Rodgers

One of the first things a new nursing student learns, long before they start sticking needles in people, is a nursing code of ethics. Every profession has an ethic, a common morality or overriding philosophy evolving around the profession itself and the acts of the people who are involved it. In the field of nursing where people put their lives in the hands of a total stranger, following a system of ethics is critically important. Nursing ethics takes the form of several categories:

1. Competence - A nurse is responsible at all times to see that they have the proper training and experience for every procedure that they do. When a nurse is issued a license to practice nursing after passing the state board of nursing exam, there is an understanding that the nurse is competent to perform all nursing tasks under the licensure. However, continuing education and experience are the responsibility of the nurse to ensure the proper technique and understanding is present.
2. Compassion - The next set of ethics regards the treatment of patients. A nurse is supposed to be a compassionate caregiver who regards the safety and dignity of each individual with utmost diligence. That means each patient must be treated as a unique individual with a right to privacy and dignity. Each patient or their guardian must consent to nursing care and be treated out of the best experience of the nurse.
3. Quality Care - a nurse is to ensure that they are in a position where they can provide consistent quality care to the patient while they are on shift. That means a nurse who hasn't gotten enough sleep, is overworked to the point of exhaustion, is distracted by professional or personal problems, or is using drugs or alcohol that could impede judgment is breaking the ethic of quality care and could be putting their license in jeopardy. Quality care also means using the required standards for care involving procedures, techniques and hospital policy.
4. Collaboration - The health care system is a multi-connected organism where each person depends on the other to fulfill his or her obligations correctly. Communication and collaboration are essential elements in a nursing code of ethics. Nurses must collaborate honestly with doctors, technicians, specialists, social workers, administration, patients and family members of patients to create a holistic healing environment where all elements of patient care are foremost and efficient.
5. Career Professionalism - A nurse does not just do things for patients or themselves. A nurse must be conscious that they work for and are part of a larger profession of people. Nurses are required to further the profession by their appearance, attitude and consistent representation of the profession as a whole. Nurses must continue as part of that profession to engage in dialogue and documentation that uplifts the nursing profession and provides a consistent body of wisdom and accountability to the career as a whole.

The nursing code of ethics passed by the American Nurses Association encompasses all these categories and provides nurses with guidelines and benchmarks to ensure they are meeting their obligation to the overall ethic of the health care system.

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