Case Study on ethical principles
Question 1: Which ethical principles are challenged in this case study, and how?
There are various ethical principles that nurses are supposed to follow following the ethical and legal issues. In the case study, the nurses end up failing to follow some particular ethics given in the way they handle Ayesha in the hospital.
The first principle challenged is the principle of respect for autonomy. This principle requires nurses to respect the patient’s wishes and support their decisions. Ayesha requests for a pregnancy test and demands for an abortion if the results turn out positive. The legislation supports the decision she made, but the team leader goes the extra mile to lie about her appendix removal without her consent. She is not aware of the lie that her other clinical symptoms are due to appendicitis and that it needed surgery.
Secondly, an ethical principle of beneficence that provides care to others to promote their well-being gets challenged. The nurses get forced to keep the secret to ensure that Ayesha’s husband does not find out what she is going through. The team leader struggles with the mystery, and when Suman becomes upset, she decides to lie in terms of giving him assistance about his wife’s situation in theatre.
Another principle is the principle of non-maleficence. This ethical principle stands upon legality not to cause harm to others. However, some short term harm is made to patients to promote long term benefits. For example, Ayesha is chasing a dream of her life, which could be cut short by pregnancy. The decision she made to have an abortion will help her health-wise and have her desire achieved.
The ethical principle of justice is also another principle that faces a challenge. All patients should be treated equally according to the law. Despite the equality in treatment, some patients like Ayesha require a different procedure for special care only; therefore, she has to go D and C surgery.
Question 2: Identify the legal issues raised
Legal law plays a crucial role in nursing. For instance, it helps to protect patients against injury that may be caused by malpractice of nurses, as well as ensure nurses practice against saults where rights get provided. In the case study, we can identify some legal habits fraud as the team leader deceived Ayesha’s husband. Fraud is a type of quasi intentional tort and is against nursing law. Any breach of the law may lead to legal action.
Question 3: Discuss some of the short term and long-term consequences of this lie/deception?
Short-term consequences
Suspension of a nurse’s license in case Ayesha’s husband finds out that the nurse lied to him about the surgery, he might go-ahead to file a complaint to the disciplinary committee, and the nurse will get suspended. The suspension given until the case is heard in court to determine whether the nurse is guilty.
Letter of reprimand. The message is posted against the nurse’s license to show that an action has taken place. This is supposed to get public.
Letter or admonishment. The note should be without public consent. It warns the licensee not to repeat the mistake. For instance, the team leader should receive the letter of admonishment for the lie.
The imposition of a fine. A fine is given as a consequence to ensure that the nurse learns not to make mistakes as such.
Probation. A nurse gets a specific requirement to fulfill for him or her to continue with the job. In this study, the nurse found to commit deception should have to do a task.
Long-term consequences
Among the long term consequences that the team leader may face includes the revocation of license. Breach of conduct and failure to observe ethics in nursing may lead to a permanent loss of license, which means the team leader may lose his profession. Therefore, the nurse might end up not work anymore in any healthcare facility. The nurse is no longer a registered nurse, and the license gets terminated completely.
Question Four: considering at least two different ethical theories, outline some possible actions the nurse may take in responding to the situation.
The nurse must respond to the situation. Different ethical theories may guide the nurse in responding. Among them includes the natural law theory and deontology theory. They are using deontology theory, which usually argues that possible unconditional authority must be articulated except exemption. Based on this concept, and the fact that abortion is not illegal, the nurse may justify the action in using the theory. To avoid the Ayesha from carrying abortion using dangerous methods, the nurse had a moral obligation to articulate her demand. Therefore, the nurse had no right to exempt abortion. On the other hand, the nurse can also use the theory of natural law, which justifies articulating actions that are right with a patient, is morally right. Therefore the nurse carried the activity to promote patients’ will; therefore, her efforts were right in accord with the patient.
Question 5: What will I do?
As the team leader, I would have the facts that I had to lie to to protect the secret of the patient because it is her right to do so. Ayesha needs to have her secret kept because it holds her job and dream upon it. If the husband finds out that Ayesha was pregnant and the pregnancy terminated, he will sue the hospital since he has been pressuring Ayesha to give him a child. Suman has gone even the extra mile, ensuring that his wife does not use contraceptives to get pregnant. Ayesha chooses to chase her carrier since the pregnancy will harm it, and she will have to start from scratch is the pregnancy is given a priority.
Furthermore, the ethical and legal issues give us nurses permission to do according to the patient’s demand. Ayesha is the one with the will and not the husband; hence, I should have a right to do precisely what protects her interests. Ayesha needed the secret to making sure that the husband is kept out of knowledge of the test results. When Suman hears that his wife is in surgery, he gets mad, and the only way to convince him is by informing him of operation and not a pregnancy termination because this could bring out more chaos.