Legal & Ethics Flashcards
Whats altruism?
Concern for welfare and well-being of others
Whats autonomy?
The right to self determination
Whats human dignity?
Respect for inherent worth and uniqueness of individuals and populations
Whats integrity?
Acting according to code of ethics and standards of practice
The nurse will be honest and will provide care based on an ethical framework possessed within the nursing practice
Whats social justice?
Upholding moral, legal, and humanistic rights.
Assurance of equal treatment under the law and equal access to quality health care is how a nurse will uphold this value.
What are the three main activities of the valuing process?
Choosing:
Choosing freely from alternatives after careful consideration of the consequences of each alternative
Prizing (treasuring)
Involves pride, happiness, and public affirmation
Acting
Combining choice into one’s behavior with consistency and regularity on the value
What is ethics?
Ethics: a systematic study of principles of right and wrong conduct, virtue and vice, and good and evil as they relate to conduct and human flourishing
What are bioethics?
Bioethics: ask questions such as what kind of person should I be; what are my duties and obligations to other people; what do I owe the common good or the public?
Bioethics: ask questions such as what kind of person should I be; what are my duties and obligations to other people; what do I owe the common good or the public?
What are nursing ethics?
Nursing ethics: subset of bioethics; formal study of ethical issues that arise in the practice of nursing
What are morals?
Morals: personal or communal standards of right and wrong
What are Beauchamp and Childress’s principle-based approach to bioethics?
Four key principles: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice- some nurses may add fidelity veracity, accountability, privacy, and confidentiality.
-Autonomy refers to respecting the rights of patients or their surrogates to make health care decisions.
-Avoid causing harm is the meaning behind nonmaleficence.
-Beneficence has to do with the benefit of the patient, with balancing benefits against risks and harms.
-Justice is acting fairly and fidelity is keeping promises.
-Veracity refers to truth/fact.
*As nurses, we’re caring for our patients very closely. Patients will divulge private and personal information to us. So whenever you may be involved in the decision making process, think carefully about what the patient wants, not what you would want. With a care-based approach, the nurse–patient relationship is central. It will direct attention to the specific situation(s) of individual patients viewed within the context of their life narrative. The care-based approach is essential to person-centered care.
Describe the principle-based approach and care-based approach to bioethics
The characteristics of the care-based approach within bioethics consists of:
Centrality of the caring relationship
Promotion of the dignity and respect of patients as people
Attention to the particulars of individual patients
Cultivation of responsiveness to others and professional responsibility
A redefinition of fundamental moral skills to include virtues like kindness, attentiveness, empathy, compassion, reliability
Apply the ethical framework and decision-making process to resolve ethical problems
When there’s a formal ethical problem, there are typically an ethics committee that will run through the ethical framework and decision-making process to hopefully resolve the problem. The steps of the nursing process could help in guiding ethical decisions:
Step 1 - Assess the situation; you’ll be gathering information from other multiple people and disciplines.
Step 2 - Diagnosing the ethical problem(s) by clarifying the ethical issue in nature. But make sure that the problem is an ethical problem rather than a communication or legal problem.
Step 3 - Is planning where this involves identifying and weighing alternatives. This is using ethical reasoning to decide on a course of action that you can justify ethically.
Step 4 - Is implementation, this is where you decide and begin to compare the outcome of your action with what you considered and hoped for in advance.
Step 5 - Is to evaluate your decision.
Discuss the role of the nurse as a patient advocate in ethical situations
Primary commitment to the patient
Prioritization of good of individual patient rather than society in general
Evaluation of competing claims of patient’s autonomy and patient well-being
Advocacy is the protection and support of another’s rights. We as the nurse are the bridges between vulnerable patients and the resources they need to secure health outcomes, nurses have always been strong patient advocates. Our role as a patient advocate in ethical situations involves collaborating with other health professionals and the public to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities. Nurses who value patient advocacy will make a primary commitment to the patient but still ensuring their loyalty to their employer and colleagues, prioritization to the good of the individual rather than the good of society in general, and evaluation of competing claims of the patient’s autonomy and well-being. The ANA Code of ethics states “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health and safety of the patient
Describe the four sources of law.
The four sources of law on a federal and state level are constitution, statutory law, administrative law, and common law.
-Federal and state constitutions indicate how the federal and state governments are created, and they give authority and state the principles and provisions for establishing specific laws.
-Constitutions serve as guides to legislative bodies. A legislative body enacts statutory law. Nurse practice acts are an example of statutory laws.
-Administrative laws are empowered by executive officers like the President of the United States, state governors, and city mayors who are responsible for law enforcement.
- Boards of nursing are administrative facilities at the state level. The rules and regulations that they adopt are administrative laws.
-An example of a municipal administrative facility is the city board of health.
-The judiciary system reconciles controversies, and creates the body of the common law. Common law helps prevent one set of rules from being used to judge one person and another set to judge another person in similar circumstances. An example of common law is malpractice.
