Ethical Issues in Nursing
The ethical principles of non-maleficence and beneficence have not been well adhered to. The principle of non-maleficence is one which states that medical practitioners more so nurses should not do any harm meaning all their decision should lead to good. This is based on the understanding that there is a need for them to behave and act in a manner that will ensure there is no harm done to the patient. This was not the case in that the existence of varying assessment findings that were wrong meant that the nurse was not keen on their work. On beneficence, all acts and decisions of the nurse should always lead to better outcomes that benefit the patient. In this case, the activities and behavior of this nurse do not benefit the patient in any meaningful way. It instead puts the life of the patient at risk.
The best way of handling this is by talking to the nurse and trying to make them understand the bigger impact of their behavior (McDermott-Levy et al., 2018). This will involve explaining to them why the patients may end up being disfranchised by such acts. Another thing is by informing them of the challenges they may expose the whole hospital or medical facility to after the patients have sued that hospital for negligent service delivery. It will be great for them to see that such an act, apart from losing their jobs, may affect their service delivery, which will put the patient’s life at risk. The idea of reporting them may not be the best at first since there is a need to explain to them so that they can rectify the issue before being subjected to disciplinary action by the management. If the issue is reported to the management, then disciplinary action will be inevitable.
When related to a real-life scenario, many people are fired the moment such cases are reported to management hence the need to address it locally at the primary level before taking it to the management for further action, but this only happens when the fellow fails to make adjustments to their way of doing things.
Summary of the case: Case one is indeed about the need to ensure that many people can understand the need to follow due process as well as stick to the nursing code of ethics. There is a need for the decisions to be made in favor of the patient as well as the employees; in this case, nurses should work to ensure that they do not commit any mistake since a single mistake in the healthcare sector may end up being fatal. A huge number of people may not be so keen on processes when it comes to discharging their mandate; there is need for such nurses to be talked to since the issue of non-maleficence and beneficence are indeed worthy principles that should be put in action (Bradley, 2017). There is a need for the employees to be talked to before being subjected a disciplinary action, which may lead to a dismissal.
References
McDermott-Levy, R., Leffers, J., & Mayaka, J. (2018). Ethical principles and guidelines of global health nursing practice. Nursing Outlook, 66(5), 473-481.
Bradley, L. (2017). Non-maleficence: the perspective of a medical student. The British Journal of General Practice, 67(659), 252.