Application of Ethics in the Community

history of nursing ethics

-florence nightingale believes God spoke to her which inspired her career

• she was drawn to reform nursing

• believed nursing was a call to service and the moral character of persons entering nursing was important

• passionate about primary prevention

-many nursing programs were ruled by religious organizations and ethics was embedded into the curricula

-1960s ANA recommended that all nursing education occur in institutions of higher education

-technological advancements consumed more content of nursing programs

-bioethics movement of the era encouraged ethics to be integrated into various nursing disciplines

-in 1950, the Code of Professional Nurse developed

-1953 First International Council of Nurses

• first international code of ethics for nurses

public health code of ethics

a state of complete physical, mental, and societal well-being, not merely the absence of diseases

-consists of 12 principles related to the ethical practice of public health

ethics

branch of philosophy that includes both a body of knowledge about the moral life and a process of reflection for determining what person ought to do or be regarding this life

bioethics

branch of ethics that applies the knowledge and process of ethics to the examination of ethical problems in health care

moral distress

an uncontrollable state of self in which one is unable to act ethically

morality

shared and generational societal norms about what constitutes right or wrong conduct

values

beliefs about the worth or importance of what is right

ethical dilemma

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

code of ethics

moral standards that delineate a profession’s values, goals, and obligations

utilitarianism

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

deontology

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

principlism

an approach to problem solving in bioethics that uses the principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmalificence, and justice as the basis for organization and analysis of ethical issues and dilemmas

advocacy

the act of pleading for or supporting a course of action on behalf of a person, group, or community

nuremburg trial

in 1946 Nazi doctors were accused of conducting murderous and torturous human experiments in concentration camps during WWII

-resulted in the development of the Nuremburg Code

• set the standard to regulate human experiments; voluntary consent of human subjects is essential

tuskegee study

in 1932, 600 black men were given treatment for syphilis and informed consent was not collected, however they did not receive actual treatment for the disease