Oberle Flashcards
What does Oberle consider to be at the “heart” of nursing ethics?
Relationship
Relational Ethics:
says our ethical understanding are formed in, and emerge from, our relationship with others
- refers to individual relationships but also helps to consider how we relate within an institutional structure
- *a relationship ethic requires nurse enter into dialogue to determine the pt wishes (must set aside authority + certainty_
6 elements of ethical relationships (according to 2 Canadian ethics scholars)
embodiment, mutuality, engagement, non-coercion, freedom + choice
(plus environment)
Embodiment
- in relational ethics means recognizing mind-body split is artificial one –. Healing only comes from equal weight of scientific knowledge + human compassion, emotions as important as physical signs + symptoms in life
• Requires nurse become aware of what person is truly experiencing – extension of own self to the point that their experience becomes a part of the nurse’s own experience
- requires commitment to care for others, moral imperative becomes to value + respect others
Mutuality
The nature of this relationship?
- Relationship benefits both and harms neither
- requires that the interaction goes both ways (even though nurses sometimes thought to provide service with no expectation of return)
- both committed to relationhip
Engagement
Connecting with others in what way?
What kind of awareness does this require?
Connecting with others in open, trusting, and responsive manner
- requires being aware of how to engage within professional limitations (connection without overstretching boundaries of the nursing role)
What is non-coercion?
Not pressuring or forcing someone into a particular choice
Choice =
Making one’s own decisions.
Being self-determining.
Is very linked to freedom.
Freedom involves?
Creating an environment in which choices are available.
Environment as theme identified in relational ethics:
- Discussed by Bergum
- Describes relationship as “each of us - a living system - that changes through daily action” . We are the healthcare system, we are environment”
- Each action we take affects the system in some way
- Makes us aware of how the ways in which the power structures and politics of the overall system can afect care and relationship
- Encourages us to look at bigger picture
- if nurse feels oppressed by hierarchical structures, relationship of nurse to client and to system could be jeapordized
3 questions asked in relational ethics in nursing?
o What kind of relationship in important in the clinical situation?
oWhat makes for right and good health care relations?
oWhat are our ethical commitments to one another in a professional relationship?
Is the ability to form relationships define by the principles listed before (non-coercion, etc) a responsibility or a moral obligation for a nurse? (from the relational ethics point of view)?
Moral obligation
Moral relativism =
Any and all ideas have equal moral weight
implies that no single solution is any more right than another…
not what we use in nursing
WHERE DOES IDEA OF “RIGHT” COME FROM IN NURSING?
Why is this perhaps controversial?
o Guided by set of professional standards, which was informed by experienced nurses
o W/o universal concept of where right came from, authors say that our idea of “good” came out of practice – values in the Code grew out of practical wisdom of expert nurses through reflection of practice + in consideration of ethical theories
**Criticism comes from the idea that by being developed by nurses, nursing ethics uses what “is” rather than what “ought to be”
Moral sensitivity
must be able to recognize the moral dimensions of situations and to call on a sound knowledge based for guidance in making right decisions
What is the difference between “narrative” ethics and relational ethics?
Narrative depends on hearing the other’s story
Relational requires that we enter into a relationship with that person in such a way as to better understand the meaning of that story
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