Ethics of caring is an important and critical issues to nursing and to nursing leaders. Nurse leaders must constantly work to make sure that individual patients are cared for in an “individual” way, rather than grouping patients according to symptoms or healthcare needs. What makes the field of nursing unique is a nurse’s ability to identify and address the unique needs of patients, often those that have similar disorders or illnesses. Often a nurse is required to make ethical judgments as to help a patient or not in situations where a nurse has a choice to decide to advocate for patient’s or not. According to Tronto (1993) as described in Lachman’s (2012) review of ethical care of nursing, a general definition of nursing care can include “species activity including everything we do to maintain, continue and repair our world so we can live in it well” (p. 103). Caring may also involve becoming intimately involved in the daily needs of a patient to ensure the best possible outcome. This also suggests that the nurse look after the body and self, including bodies of others and other selves, when providing competent care in a life-sustaining atmosphere. A moral question that must be ascertained in this regard is how can a nurse meet their caring responsibility (Lachman, 2012). This paper will attempt to discern the answer to this question.
Key Strategies Pertinent to Ethical Issue
Key strategies pertinent to caring practice include providing cognitive and emotional action strategies for care for patients (Lachman, 2012, p. 113). In this, one must develop a personal policy for caring “about” patients and caring for or taking care of patients in their care (Lachman, 2012). Hospitals often have their own policies that dictate what a nurse can do for a patient and how they should go about such care; for example, a nurse must respond to a patient light when on, as the patient expresses need in this circumstance (Lachman, 2012). While there is no question that nurses have a duty to their patients, the extent to which a nurse becomes personally involved in entirely contingent on the nurses integrity and personal code of ethics.
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"Ethics of Caring in Nursing Practice".
Analysis of Evidence
Lachman (2012) provides an example of a patient that is brought into the hospital for alcoholism and diabetes, whose wife recently died. In this instance, the researcher cites evidence that the patient is requesting more pain medicine than an ordinary patient might with the same condition. In this case however, the nurse caring for the patient knows by researching the patient history and by personal investigation of the patient history, that for this patient, a higher dose of pain medication is warranted and necessary. Thus, the nurse must decide whether they will advocate for the patient by refuting physician orders and stating the patient case, or to “go with the flow” which may result in inadequate pain support for the patient in question (Lachman, 2012). Nurses may not constantly have a grasp of the psychological morals that are involved in caring for patients, although caring is absolutely essential for patients particularly those in crisis situations. Most relevant to nurses is Watson’s theory of the caring relationship, which describes a “transpersonal caring relationship” and occasions where human beings have an opportunity to honor the “human dimensions of nursing’s work and the inner life world and subjective experiences of the people served” (Watson, 1997, p. 50; Lachman, 2012b). Nurses, to provide good care, must understand the human factor in caring, which includes attending to the psychological, cultural, spiritual and physical needs of patients independently, rather than looking at patients in a group context. Such care can result in reciprocity of human interest, where the nurse provides a framework of providing a caregiving relationship, rather than simply a medical relationship.
Importance to Nursing
Nursing requires that the nurse creates an interchange with patients that focus on meeting the needs of their individual patients and family members, ensuring along the way that an “abuse of power” does not occur in the healthcare relationship (Lachman, 2012b, p. 114). Abuse of a leader’s or other representative’s power can come in many forms, including the healthcare system which may have a tendency to lump all patients into a single defining category (Lachman, 2012b). However, morally and ethically, a nurse has a duty to be attentive, to be responsible and responsive to the individual wants, needs and desires of patients within their care, and to provide competent care at all times. This suggests that a nurse must constantly work on making sound ethical decisions and moral decisions when working in the healthcare setting.
Conclusion
Everyday nurses are faced with complex moral and ethical issues. These issues arise as a nurse develops a caring relationship with patients. The nurse is charged with the task of having the energy and the motivation to care for patients that may have complex needs, and whose needs may be different than that originally assessed by a primary healthcare provider or physician. In instances like this, a nurse may be placed in a confrontational status, where he or she must advocate for their patient to ensure that caring occurs, and the best possible care is available to patients within a nurse’s care and scope of care. A qualified and competent nurse however, will use their voice and competence to serve patients regardless of their needs at all times, upholding the caring relationship.
- Lachman, V. (2012 March-April). Applying the Ethics of Care to Your Nursing Practice.
MESURG Nursing, 21(2). Retrieved from: http://www.nursingworld.org - Watson, J. (1997). The Theory of Human Caring: Retrospective and Prospective. Nursing
Science Quarterly, 10(1): 49-52.
