Code of Ethics for Nurses

Question 1

What are the 2 interpretive statements under provision 8?

Answer 1

8.1 Health needs and concerns; 8.2 Responsibilities to the public

Question 2

Describe provision 1

Answer 2

The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems

Question 3

Describe provision 2

Answer 3

The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, or community

Question 4

Describe provision 3

Answer 4

The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient

Question 5

Describe provision 4

Answer 5

The nurse is responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice and determines the appropriate delegation of tasks consistent with the nurse’s obligation to provide optimum patient care

Question 6

Describe provision 5

Answer 6

The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to preserve integrity and safety, to maintain competence, and to continue personal and professional growth

Question 7

Describe provision 6

Answer 7

The nurse participates in establishing, maintaining, and improving health care environments and conditions of employment conducive to the provision of quality health care and consistent with the values of the profession thru individual and collective action

Question 8

Describe provision 7

Answer 8

The nurse participates in the advancement of the profession thru contributions to practice, education, administration, and knowledge development

Question 9

Describe provision 8

Answer 9

The nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public in promoting community, national, and international efforts to meet health needs

Question 10

Describe provision 9

Answer 10

The profession of nursing, as represented by associations and their members, is responsible for articulating nursing values, for maintaining the integrity of the profession and its practice, and for shaping social policy

Question 11

Describe the respect for human dignity. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 11

Nurses take into account the needs and values of all persons in all professional relationships. Provision 1

Question 12

Describe the relationships to patients. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 12

The nurse establishes relationships and delivers nursing services with respect for human needs and values, and without prejudice. Provision 1

Question 13

Describe the nature of health problems. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 13

The worth of the person is not affected by disease, disability, functional status, or proximity to death. (promotion of health, prevention of illness, restoration of health, alleviation of suffering, & supportive care to those who are dying). Provision 1

Question 14

Describe the right to self-determination. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 14

The philosophical basis for informed consent in health care. Pts should be involved in planning their own health care to the extent they are able and choose to participate. Provision 1

Question 15

Describe the relationships with colleagues and others. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 15

Nurse maintains compassionate and caring relationships with colleagues and others with a commitment to the fair tx of individuals, to integrity-preserving compromise, and to resolving conflict. Provision 1

Question 16

Describe the primacy of the patient’s interests. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 16

The nurse’s primary commitment is to the recipient of nursing and health care services –the patient–whether the recipient is an individual, a family, a group, or a community. Provision 2

Question 17

Describe the conflict of interest for nurses. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 17

Nurses are frequently put in situations of conflict arising from competing loyalties in the workplace, including situations of conflicting expectations from pts, families, physicians, colleagues, and in many cases, health care organizations and health plans. Provision 2

Question 18

Describe collaboration. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 18

Collaboration is not just cooperation, but it is the concerted effort of individuals and groups to attain a shared goal. Provision 2

Question 19

Describe Professional boundaries. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 19

When acting within one’s role as a professional, the nurse recognizes and maintains boundaries that establish appropriate limits to relationships. Provision 2

Question 20

Describe privacy. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 20

The nurse safeguards the patient’s right to privacy. Provision 3

Question 21

Describe confidentiality. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 21

Nurse has a duty to maintain confidentiality of all pt info. The pt’s well-being could be jeopardized and the fundamental trust btwn pt and nurse destroyed by unnecessary access to data or by the inappropriate disclosure of identifiable pt info. Provision 3

Question 22

Describe the protection of participants in research. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 22

Stemming form the right to self-determination, each individual has the right to choose whether or not to participate in research. Provision 3

Question 23

Describe the standards and review mechanisms. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 23

Nursing is responsible and accountable for assuring that only those individuals who have demonstrated the knowledge, skill, practice experiences, commitment, and integrity essential to professional practice are allowed to enter into and continue to practice within the profession. Provision 3

Question 24

Describe acting on questionable practice. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 24

As an advocate for the pt, the nurse must be alert to and take appropriate action regarding any instances of incompetent, unethical, illegal, or impaired practice by any member of the health care team or the health care system or any action on the part of others that places the rights or best interests of the pt in jeopardy. Provision 3

Question 25

Describe addressing impaired practice. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 25

Nurses must be vigilant to protect the pt, the public and the profession from potential harm when a colleague’s practice, in any setting, appears to be impaired. Provision 3

Question 26

Describe the acceptance of accountability and responsibility. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 26

The nurse retains accountability and responsibility for the quality of practice and for conformity with standards of care in direct care activities, acts of delegation, and other responsibilities such as teaching, research, and administration. Provision 4

Question 27

Describe the accountability for nursing judgment and action. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 27

To be answerable to oneself and others for one’s own actions. In order to be accountable, nurses act under a code of ethical conduct that is grounded in the moral principles of fidelity and respect for the dignity, worth, and self-determination of pts. Provision 4

Question 28

Describe the responsibility for nursing judgment and action. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 28

Responsibility refers to the specific accountability or liability associated with the performance of duties of a particular role. Nurses accept or reject specific role demands based upon their education, knowledge, competence, and extent of experience. Provision 4

Question 29

Describe the delegation of nursing activities. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 29

Since the nurse is accountable for the quality of nursing care given to pts, nurses are accountable for the assignment of nursing responsibilities to other nurses and the delegation of nursing care activities to other health care workers. Provision 4

Question 30

Describe moral self-respect. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 30

The same duties that we owe to others we owe to ourselves. Self-regarding duties refer to a realm of duties that primarily concern oneself and include professional growth and maintenance of competence, preservation of wholeness of character, and personal integrity. Provision 5

Question 31

Describe growth and maintenance of competence. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 31

Though it has consequences for others, maintenance of competence and ongoing professional growth involves the control of one’s own conduct in a way that is primarily self-regarding. Provision 5

Question 32

Describe the wholeness of character. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 32

Nurses have both personal and professional identities that are neither entirely separate, nor entirely merged, but are integrated. In the process of becoming a professional, the nurse embraces the values of the profession, integrating them with personal values. Provision 5

Question 33

Describe the preservation of integrity. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 33

Integrity is an aspect of wholeness of character and is primarily a self-concern of the individual nurse. Threats to integrity may include a request to deceive a pt, to withhold info, or to falsify records, as well as verbal abuse from pts or coworkers. Provision 5

Question 34

Describe the influence of the environment on moral virtues and values. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 34

Virtues are habits of character that predispose persons to meet their moral obligations; that is, to do what is right. Virtues such as wisdom, honesty, and courage are habits or attributes of the morally good person. Provision 6

Question 35

Describe the influence of the environment on ethical obligations. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 35

All nurses, regardless of role, have a responsibility to create, maintain, and contribute to environments of practice that support nurses in fulfilling their ethical obligations. Provision 6

Question 36

Describe the responsibility for the health care environment. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 36

The nurse is responsible for contributing to a moral environment that encourages respectful interactions with colleagues, support of peers, and identification of issues that need to be addressed. Provision 6

Question 37

Describe the advancing the profession thru active involvement in nursing and in health care policy. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 37

Nurses should advance their profession by contributing in some way to the leadership, activities, and the viability of their professional organizations. Provision 7

Question 38

Describe advancing the profession by developing, maintaining, and implementing professional standards in clinical, administrative, and educational practice. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 38

Professional standards and guidelines for nurses must be developed by nurses and reflect nursing’s responsibility to society. Provision 7

Question 39

Describe advancing the profession thru knowledge development, dissemination, and application to practice. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 39

The nursing profession should engage in scholarly inquiry to identify, evaluate, refine, and expand the body of knowledge that forms the foundation of its discipline and practice. Provision 7

Question 40

Describe the health needs and concerns. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 40

The nurse has a responsibility to be aware not only of specific health needs of individual pts but also of broader health concerns such as world hunger, environmental pollution, lack of access to health care, violation of human rights, and inequitable distribution of nursing and health care resources. Provision 8

Question 41

Describe the responsibilities to the public. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 41

Nurses, individually and collectively, have a responsibility to be knowledgeable about the health status of the community and existing threats to health and safety. Provision 8

Question 42

Describe the assertion of values. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 42

It is the responsibility of a professional association to communicate and affirm the values of the profession to its members. Provision 9

Question 43

Describe the profession carries out its collective responsibility thru professional associations. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 43

The Code of Ethics for Nurses; the standards of nursing practice; the ongoing development of nursing knowledge derived from nursing theory, scholarship, and research in order to guide nursing actions; educational requirements for practice; certification; mechanisms for evaluating the effectiveness of professional nursing actions. Provision 9

Question 44

Describe intraprofessional integrity. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 44

A professional association is responsible for expressing the values and ethics of the profession and also for encouraging the professional organization and its members to function in accord with those values and ethics. Provision 9

Question 45

Describe social reform. What provision does this fall under?

Answer 45

Nurses can work individually as citizens or collectively thru political action to bring about social change. Provision 9

Question 46

What provision states that the nurse is expected to reflect and move beyond feelings to provide the same level of care to every patient, regardless of dx, skin color, ethnic origin, or economic status?

Answer 46

Provision 1

Question 47

What provision states that ethical dilemmas will arise as the nurse attempts to balance a commitment to the patient, the family, and the community?

Answer 47

Provision 2

Question 48

What provision states that the nurse must balance the pt’s right to privacy with protection of the pt from harm?

Answer 48

Provision 3

Question 49

What provision states that the recognition of accountability for actions is the cornerstone for a profession b/c of the implied social contract with the public?

Answer 49

Provision 4

Question 50

What provision states that self-respect or seeing self as deserving of worth?

Answer 50

Provision 5

Question 51

What provision states that the goal is for nurses to work with administration to create an environment for safe and quality pt care?

Answer 51

Provision 6

Question 52

What provision states that nurses must recognize cultural sensitivity is necessary in our global village?

Answer 52

Provision 8

Question 53

What are the 6 interpretive statements under provision 3?

Answer 53

3.1 Privacy; 3.2 Confidentiality; 3.3 Protection of participants in research; 3.4 Standards and review mechanisms; 3.5 Acting on questionable practice; 3.6 Addressing impaired practice

Question 54

What are the 4 interpretive statements under provision 4?

Answer 54

4.1 Acceptance of accountability and responsibility; 4.2 Accountability for nrsg judgment and action; 4.3 Responsibility for nrsg judgment and action; 4.4 Delegation of nrsg activities

Question 55

What are the 5 interpretive statements under provision 1?

Answer 55

1.1 Respect for human dignity; 1.2 Relationships to pts; 1.3 The nature of health problems; 1.4 The right to self-determination; 1.5 Relationships with colleagues and others

Question 56

What are the 4 interpretive statements under provision 2?

Answer 56

2.1 Primacy of the pt’s interests; 2.2 Conflict of interest for nurses; 2.3 Collaboration; 2.4 Professional boundaries

Question 57

What are the 4 interpretive statements under provision 5?

Answer 57

5.1 Moral self-respect; 5.2 Professional growth and maintenance of competence; 5.3 Wholeness of character; 5.4 Preservation of integrity

Question 58

What are the 3 interpretive statements under provision 6?

Answer 58

6.1 Influence of the environment on moral virtues and values; 6.2 Influence of the environment on ethical obligations; 6.3 Responsibility for the health care environment

Question 59

What are the 3 interpretive statements under provision 7?

Answer 59

7.1 Advancing the profession thru active involvement in nrsg and in health care policy; 7.2 Advancing the profession by developing, maintaining, and implementing professional standards in clinical, administrative, and educational practice; 7.3 Advancing the profession thru knowledge development, dissemination, and application to practice

Question 60

What are the 4 interpretive statements under provision 9?

Answer 60

9.1 Assertion of values; 9.2 The profession carries out its collective responsibility thru professional associations; 9.3 Intraprofessional integrity; 9.4 Social reform