Reviewing The Ethics Of Nursing - 1711 Words

Reviewing the Ethics of Nursing In this paper I will explore an ethical dilemma that may arise within my nursing practice. I have presented a narrative, from the article â€Å"A Dilemma in the Emergency Room†, that portrays an ethical situation involving patient confidentiality. I will focus on Standard IV: Ethical Practice of the College of Registered Nurses of British (CRNBC) as well as the other (CRNBC) Standards of Practice to further evolve my understanding of ethics from what I have learnt throughout my 110 professional practice course. The Narrative Tessa* was working her job as a registered nurse in the emergency room. She found†¦show more content†¦Ana cried in Tessa’s arms for the fear of her children, and for the possibility that it could potentially happen again. Through the tears Ana was able to express her concern for what others would think of her husband, and the fear of him knowing she had disrespected their privacy. Ana requested Tessa to not disclose this new information to anyone else, including the other health care members. *Narrative consists of fictional names Ethical Decision Making Assessing the Ethics of the Situation To discuss the different ethical considerations of this moral dilemma I have chosen to use the frameworks of Oberle and Bouchal (2009). To assist further in depicting my discoveries I will also be referring to the CRNBC standards throughout this paper. The specific incident described in the narrative portrays a difficult ethical situation for the nurse. Being a part of the health care profession, the nurse must uphold and maintain patient confidentiality and respect patient privacy needs (Oberle Bouchal, 2009). That being said there may be times when a nurse feels obligated to disclose specific information about a patient. This is seen as appropriate when the information withheld could potentially cause further harm to the patient or others. The nurse must ensure that there is a conflict of good, or that more harm may arise to the before reporting any information that would