Professional Code of Conduct in Nursing Essay Example

patients so that they can give information about what traversed and led to the accidents and areas that are highly paining.
One day, an accident took place in a nearby road. There were causalities and some patients sustained severe injuries. As a result, the severely injured people were rushed to hospital in the emergency department to receive first aid. I was duty on this fateful day and therefore I had to administer first aid to two patients who had sustained severe injuries. To my surprise, one of the two patients was a man who had betrayed me some years back. I had promised to revenge one day and I thought this was the best opportunity to revenge against the pain of betrayal I went through. Even though he was the one who needed urgent attention because of the he had sustained the worst pains, I decided to serve the other patient first even though he was not in a critical state compared to my “enemy”. Treating the first patient took about one hour and during all this time, I had not bothered to offer any form of first aid to my “enemy”. He had already recognized my face and therefore he clearly understood why I was ignoring him. After one hour, I started to give him first aid. The quality of first aid I offered to him was not professional like his fellow patient. Even though he realized this, all this time he was very silent but watching in dismay. After that, he was transferred to the main ward. Luckily, he did not report this sluggish service to the director. The director is very strict on

quality delivery and therefore if he had reported this there was a high probability of losing my job. After discharge, the patient came to my office and apologized. I accepted his apologies but deep within me, I was burning with shame and pain. I had realized that what I did was bad.

Beneficence ethical principle addresses that idea that the actions of nurses should promote good (Shirey, 2005).The nurse should always do what is best for the patient. On the other hand,nonmal eficence ethical nursing principle states that nurse’s should never harm the patients (Pacquiao, 2008). My actions contravened the principle of Beneficence because my actions did not promote good. Due to malice, I did not do good as the principle requires. On the other hand, I also contravened the normal eficence ethical nursing principle. Even though the theory provides that, the actions of nurses should not be harmful to the patients; my actions were harmful to the patients and risked his live.

The ethical principles of justice hold that all the burdens and benefits of new experimental treatments should be distributedequally among all the groups within the society. The principle of justice holds that services should be distributed fairly and equally to all the parties within the society (Web.stanford.edu, 2016).As per the principle, nurses must ensure fair and equal distribution of resources, rights and obligations and possible conflicts with recognized legislation (American Nurses Association, 2001). My actions contravened this principle because I failed to offer services equally to all the patients. I treated the patients unfairly and this is wrong as far as the ethical principle of justice is concerned.

Conclusion
In summary, nursing is a very sensitive

field and there is need for the nurses to adhere to the set code of conduct. The actions of nurses should align to the principles of nonmaleficence, honesty, justice, confidentiality, and respect for autonomy.

References
American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Nursesbooks. org.
Cohen, J. S., & Erickson, J. M. (2006). Ethical dilemmas and moral distress in oncology nursing practice. Clinical journal of oncology nursing, 10(6), 775.
Pacquiao, D. F. (2008). Nursing care of vulnerable populations using a framework of cultural competence, social justice and human rights. Contemporary Nurse, 28(1-2), 189-197.
Shirey, M. R. (2005). Ethical climate in nursing practice: the leader's role. JONA'S healthcare law, ethics and regulation, 7(2), 59-67.
Web.stanford.edu. (2016). Medical Ethics 101. online Available at: https://web.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/websites/reprotech/New%20Ways%20of%20Making%20Babies/EthicVoc.htm Accessed 15 Jun. 2016.