Ethical dilemmas in patient care have long been a problem for nurses across the world. All nurses face a number of core moral values, obligations, and beliefs that they must adhere to today. When faced with the tremendous moral dilemmas and demands experienced by today’s health professionals, it has become challenging for nurses to work with diligence. Nurses are in high demand in the current health sector, but they are inadequate to go around satisfying many patients’ needs. Ethics might arise in any healthcare circumstance where moral considerations of ‘soundness’ or ‘inappropriateness’ underpin clinical judgment and patient welfare. Oncology nurses, for instance, may dispute the utility of attempting to save a patient’s life against harsh physiological treatments that seem to extend misery and offer no beneficial results. Health professionals, especially doctors and oncology nurses, require a profound approach to tackling ethical dilemmas in dealing with care coordination’s stressful and draining nature.
End-of-life concerns, human rights violations, and patient care problems make up the bulk of the ethical issues experienced by oncology nurses, as discussed in the article by Park (2009). The most common ethical dilemmas addressed by nurses are connected to human rights and patient care concerns, whereas the most distressing ones are associated with end-of-life situations. On the one hand, oncology nurses working in major hospitals frequently cited patients’ confidentiality and privacy as the main ethical issues. Preoperative nurses, on the other hand, were more likely to face ethical difficulties relating to patient protection, informed consent, and basic human rights than other concerns, such as the ones linked to the practice of anesthesia. Nurses’ specialized areas may influence the number of ethical dilemmas they face on a daily basis.
Ethical dilemmas are often handled by nurses themselves rather than by ethics committees. When nurses utilize their own beliefs to explain ethical dilemmas, they highlight the importance of educating them in ethical decision-making (Park, 2009). Most nurses surveyed agreed that ethics education was necessary to help them deal with the ethical dilemmas they confront on a daily basis. Pragmatic ethics curricula should be developed for nursing education based on these considerations. Ethics should be taught in diploma and undergraduate courses to help nursing students gain the ability to recognize and analyze ethical dilemmas. Students in nursing programs should learn about the American Nurses Association’s (ANA’s) code of ethics and ethical standards. A nurse’s code of conduct will act as a reference point when confronted with an ethical problem.
Ethical problems in patient care have long been a predicament for oncology nurses around the globe. Ethical issues may arise in any healthcare circumstance where moral deliberations of soundness or unsuitability underpin clinical decisions and patient welfare. Health professionals, particularly doctors and oncology nurses, require a profound approach to addressing ethical dilemmas in dealing with care coordination’s taxing and draining nature. End-of-life concerns, human rights infringements, and patient care problems are the main ethical issues experienced by oncology nurses. Nurses’ specialized areas might influence the nature of ethical dilemmas they experience on a daily basis. Ethics education is essential to help health professionals in dealing with ethical dilemmas. Nursing students should learn about the ANA’s code of ethics and ethical values. The nursing code of conduct will work as a reference point when oncology nurses are confronted with ethical issues.
Reference
Park, M. (2009). Ethical issues in nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Law, 13(3), 68-77.