A Career of Rigor: Nursing Demands Dedication & Compassion - Essay Sample

Introduction

Nursing is one of the areas of work or rather a career that demands a lot from the people who are into it. It is not an easy thing to go through the nursing sector if one is not rigid enough to be able to accommodate all the challenges that come their way. There are the nursing ethics, values and principles which govern how these nurses carry out their daily duties as medical practitioners to treat all the patients brought to them. At the same time, the patients themselves have their feelings, and there are things they think should be done to them by these nurses, whether they are ethical or unethical. It is therefore not easy for the nurses to balance well between the two competing sides, but still, they have to because it is their profession. The focus in this scope is to get to understand whether this granting of the decisions of patients is their right or is just a privilege from the nurses.

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Elaboration

To begin with, the values, ethics and principles in nursing provide a particular order or way in which all the things concerning their career should be done, and these values are not to be violated in any way. The nurses must be sure to stick to their ethics and codes of conduct at all times during their dealings with the patients. They must still make sure that the decisions made by the patients are respected because included in their ethics are ways to deal with the nurses who in any case do not honor what the patients feel is right for them (Annas, 2004). It is correct to say that it is a right of the patients for their decisions to be respected because this is their health which is being dealt with in this case and a person's health and life is very sensitive.

As the right of the patients; therefore, the nurses need to ensure that they are educated on the ethical issues which will be able to govern and guide them in all they do. There are several things in which they will be able to understand through these ethical issues, and the first thing is how well they will be able to accommodate every patient brought to them to acquire treatment. Besides, the ethics will make them aware of the things they should and should not allow the patients to do, although their rights need to be honored and respected. In other words, this one means that there are limitations set on the rights of patients by the ethics and values which govern the nursing industry (Merakou, 2001). The nurses need to have the capability to understand what they can do for a patient or can do whether the patients have asked for that or not. This is crucial to avoid issues in the process of treating these patients since there are those with complicated decisions against the ethics of the nurses.

Nurses have the responsibility to remain always unbiased no matter the decisions which are taken by their patients. The reason behind this is because patients are considered to be very sensitive and because the nurses have been in place to serve them, then it is a responsibility and role which they have to play without complaining (Ulrich et al, 2010). Apart from the fact that there is a time when the nurses will have to intervene in the decisions, they have to be unbiased in that they will not turn down the opinions of the patients in a way that hurts them but instead deal with it in the right channels and put things in order as per the ethical regulations. This is to show that they value these patients and the views about their health is appreciated and taken seriously.

There are so many ethical issues that nurses face each day during their work, and thus they need to be well equipped with the necessary ways and measures of going about these ethical issues effectively and remain unbiased at all times. Ethical issues which nurses may face are examples of the patients demanding transfer to another medical center which is lower than the ones they are, some demand to be injected so that they can die, and others will require that individual doctors treat them. This is a compassionate time when the medical nurses must think deeply before they take action and show respect for the decisions which are made by these patients. What cannot apply cannot and what can be granted to the patients but only through a lawful manner which incorporates all the necessary steps that need to be taken. The nurses must be in the front line to support the decisions of the patients, whether they are contrary to the ethics or not (Tschudin, 2003). However, after sustaining, the ethics and values of nursing should help resolute on the right channels to be followed or the way to go about such. This means that the decisions of the patients being their rights do not warrant a violation of the nursing values and principles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the patients have got all the rights to decide the way they should be treated and given attention by the nurses. This is so because the nurses are there to serve the patients and provide them with the kind of care they deserve, and they should ask to be given what they feel is comfortable with them. There are regulations and limitations as per the nursing ethics which dictate what should be granted and what should not be to avoid issues with the treatment of the patients, and they are made according to the law. However, the main issue is that patients' decisions are a right and not a privilege, and the right ones must be respected and granted.

References

Annas, G. J. (2004). The rights of patients: The authoritative ACLU guide to the rights of patients. NYU Press.

Merakou, K., Dalla-Vorgia, P., Garanis-Papadatos, T., & Kourea-Kremastinou, J. (2001). Satisfying patients' rights: a hospital patient survey. Nursing Ethics, 8(6), 499-509.

Tschudin, V. (2003). Ethics in nursing: the caring relationship.

Ulrich, C. M., Taylor, C., Soeken, K., O'Donnell, P., Farrar, A., Danis, M., & Grady, C. (2010). Everyday ethics: ethical issues and stress in nursing practice. Journal of advanced nursing, 66(11), 2510-2519.