The scenario chosen for the analysis is the staff development scenario, where a more experienced nurse is observed violating safety guidelines and is seen by another nurse and the patient’s family member. In this case, my response would be to suggest reporting the nurse to the higher-ups. I understand that it is essential to adhere to safety and hygiene protocols since infections associated with hygiene are a well-known problem in the healthcare sphere (Hammerschmidt, & Manser, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to bring such violations to the wide attention of the facility’s authorities. My decision-making process is based on the theory of principlism. The core principles of this theory that are relevant to this case are nonmaleficence and justice (Jones, 2020). The responsibility of a nurse is to cause no harm to the patient, and consequences for creating such a possibility should be served regardless of the nurse’s status.
An experience of an ethical situation in education that I have had was cheating. I saw a student use their phone to search for answers during an exam. According to one of the core ideas of principlism, justice, I should have disclosed this student’s actions. Cheating creates unfair results, which, in turn, contributes to unfair expectations from students. In addition, the faulty results do not accurately represent the cheater’s knowledge, making them unjustly eligible for better grades and, consequently, positions than they deserve. As I know now, peer reporting is a strongly rejected idea among students (Vučković et al., 2020). At the time, I was hesitant to report the ordeal to the teacher, feeling unsure how it would influence my relationship with this student. Furthermore, I was not entirely sure if I would be able to prove my claims if need be.
References
Jones, A. (2020). Principlism in medicine–a philosopher’s view. Medicine, 48(10), 637–639.
Hammerschmidt, J., & Manser, T. (2019). Nurses’ knowledge, behaviour and compliance concerning hand hygiene in nursing homes: a cross-sectional mixed-methods study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1–13.
Vučković, D., Peković, S., Blečić, M., & Đoković, R. (2020). Attitudes towards cheating behavior during assessing students᾽ performance: student and teacher perspectives. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 16(1), 1–28.