Chapter 6 Key Terms Flashcards
Advocacy
- A process whereby a nurse or other health care professional provides a patient with the information to make certain decisions, usually related to some aspect of the patient’s health care.
- A method by which patients, their families, attorneys, health professionals, and citizen groups can work together to develop programs that ensure the availability of high-quality health care for a community.
- Pleading a cause on behalf of another, such as a nurse pleading for better care of a patient or for the patient’s desires to be honored.
- is an important concept in nursing that embodies an
ethical focus grounded in quality of life.
Assessment
- refers to systematically collecting data
on the population, monitoring the population’s health status,
and making information available about the health of the community
Assurance
Public health role of making sure that essential community-oriented health services are available.
- refers to the role of public health in
ensuring that essential community-oriented health services are
available, which may include providing essential personal health services for those who would otherwise not receive them. It also refers to making sure that a competent public health and personal health care workforce is available”
Beneficence
Doing good or active promotion of doing good. One of the four principles of the ethical theory of deontology.
- This principle is complementary to nonmaleficence and
requires that we do good. We are limited by time, place, and talents in the
amount of good we can do. We have general obligations to perform those
actions that maintain or enhance the dignity of other persons whenever
those actions do not place an undue burden on health care providers.
(Part of Ethical principles)
Bioethics
Obligations of a moral nature relating to biologic research and its applications.
- began to emerge because of advances in science and tech that affected health care. Today, most nursing programs integrate bioethical content into their courses or have separate courses on this topic. A branch of ethics that applies the knowledge and processes of ethics to the examination of ethical problems in health care. Although
some of these courses relate bioethics to community nursing,
the emphasis has been primarily on acute care nursing. - is a branch of ethics that applies the knowledge and processes of
ethics to the examination of ethical problems in health care.
Code of Ethics
A statement encompassing the set of rules based on values, and standards of conduct to which practitioners of a profession are expected to conform.
- Nightingale Pledge is considered to be the first one. After the Nightingale Pledge, a “suggested” code and a “tenta- tive” code were published.
- moral standards that delineate a profession’s values, goals, and obligations.
Communitarianism
Maintains that abstract, universal principles are not an adequate basis for moral decision making. History, tradition, and concrete moral communities should be the basis of moral thinking and action.
- This Enlightenment assumption has been challenged by a
number of ethical theories loosely grouped together under the
heading.The dominant themes of communitarianism
are that individual rights need to be balanced
with social responsibilities; individuals do not live in isolation
but are shaped by the values and culture of their communities. Among the theories with a communitarian
focus are virtue ethics, caring and the ethic of care, and feminist
ethics.
Consequentialism
- In some situations,
the decision is based on outcomes or consequences. That
approach to ethical decision making is called this. It maintains that the right action is the one that produces
the greatest amount of good or the least amount of harm in a
given situation.
Deontology
A doctrine of ethics that states that moral duty or obligation is binding even though a moral action may be difficult or result in painful consequences.
- nurses may conclude
that the action is right or wrong in itself, regardless of the
amount of good that might come from it.It is based on the premise that persons
should always be treated as ends in themselves and never as mere means to the ends of others. - is an ethical theory that bases moral obligation on duty and
claims that actions are obligatory irrespective of the good or harmful
consequences that they produce. Because humans are rational, they have absolute value. Therefore, persons should always be treated as ends in
themselves and never as mere means.
Distributive Justice
Distributive justice requires that there be a fair distribution
of the benefits and burdens in society based on the needs and contributions
of its members. This principle requires that, consistent with the
dignity and worth of its members and within the limits imposed by its
resources, a society must determine a minimal level of goods and services
to be available to its members.
- or social justice, refers to the allocation of benefits and burdens to members of society.
Benefits refer to basic needs, including material and social
goods, liberties, rights, and entitlements.
( Part of ethical Principles)
Ethical Decision making
Making decisions within an orderly framework that considers context, ethical approaches, client values, and professional obligations.
- The process is the thinking that occurs when health care professionals must make decisions about ethical issues and ethical dilemmas.
Ethical dilemmas
Dilemma existing when the right thing to do is not clear. Resolution requires the negotiation of differing values among those involved in the dilemma.
- is a puzzling moral problem in which a person, group, or
community can envision morally justified reasons for both taking and not
taking a certain course of action. - are human dilemmas and puzzling moral problems in which a person, group, or community can
envision morally justified reasons for both taking and not
taking a certain course of action. One example is how to allocate resources to two equally needy populations when the resources are sufficient to serve only one of
the populations. Ethical theories, principles, and decision making
frameworks help us think through these issues and
dilemmas.
Ethical issues
Moral challenges facing the nursing profession.
- are moral challenges facing a person
or a profession. In nursing, one such challenge is how to prepare
an adequate and competent workforce for the future.
Ethics
The science or study of moral values or principles, including ideals of autonomy, beneficence, and justice
- is a branch of philosophy that includes both a body of knowledge about
the moral life and a process of reflection for determining what persons
ought to do or be regarding this life. - is concerned with a body of knowledge that addresses
questions such as the following: How should I behave? What
actions should I perform? What kind of person should I be?
What are my obligations to myself and to fellow humans? There are general obligations that humans have as members of society. Among these general obligations are not to harm others, to
respect others, to tell the truth, and to keep promises.
Feminine ethic
- believe in the morality of responsibility in relationships that emphasize connection and caring. To them, caring is not a mere nicety but a moral imperative. Nevertheless, a long-term healthy debate has surrounded their premises.
Feminist ethics
Ethical approach that focuses on relationships of those involved in an ethical dilemma rather than traditional abstract prin-ciples of deontology.
- encompasses the tenets that women’s thinking
and moral experiences are important and should be taken
into account in any fully developed moral theory, and that the
oppression of women is morally wrong.
Feminists
- are women and men who hold a worldview advocating economic, social, and political equality for women that is equivalent to that of men.
Moral Distress
is an uncomfortable state of self in which one is unable to
act ethically.
- occurs when a person is unable to act in a way
that he or she thinks is right. You do not feel that you are able
to act in a manner consistent with your own values, cultural
expectations, and religious beliefs. When this conflict occurs, it
can lead to a personal sense of failure in the kind of care you
give and to subsequent performance issues and may lead to
work and/or career dissatisfaction
Morality
- is shared and generational societal norms about what constitutes right or wrong conduct.
Nonmaleficence
The fundamental ethical agreement to do no harm. Closely related to the ethical standard of beneficence.
- Nonmaleficence requires that we do no harm. It may be
impossible to avoid harm entirely, but this principle requires that health
care professionals act according to the standards of due care, always
seeking to produce the least amount of harm possible.
(Part of Ethical Principles)
Policy development
refers to the need to provide leadership in developing policies that support the health of the population, including the use of the scientific knowledge base
in making decisions about policy”
Principlism
Approach to problem solving in bioethics that uses the principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice as the basis for organization and analysis.
-These principles are
“general guidelines for the formulation of more specific rules”
Respect for Autonomy
Based on human dignity and respect for individuals, autonomy requires that individuals be permitted to choose those actions and goals that fulfill their life plans unless those choices result in harm to
another.
( Part of ethical principles)
Utilitarianism
A doctrine of ethics that the purpose of all action should be to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people and that the value of anything is determined by its utility.
- is an ethical theory based on the weighing of morally significant
outcomes or consequences regarding the overall maximizing of good
and minimizing of harm for the greatest number of people. - a well-known consequentialist
theory that appeals exclusively to outcomes or consequences in
determining which choice to make.
Virtue ethics
Asks “What kind of person should I be?” And purports that people should be allowed to flourish as human beings.
- is one of the oldest ethical theories; it belongs to a tradition dating back to the ancient Greek philosophers Plato
and Aristotle. It is not concerned with actions, as utilitarianism technological advances in health care science and to the desire
of nurses to differentiate nursing practice from medical practice.
Virtues
- acquired, excellent traits of character that dispose humans to
act in accord with their natural good.
Asks “What kind of person should I be?” And purports that people should be allowed to flourish as human beings.
