Ethics is a critical concept for nurses working in the contemporary healthcare environment since they often face controversial issues. Hence, nurses need to recognize ethical problems and make moral choices (Milliken, 2018). Sometimes, nurses may request the help of their colleagues or an ethics committee to resolve a particularly difficult situation, avoid legal complications, and maintain professional integrity (Catlin, 2014). However, this option is not always available, which is why nurses need to learn bioethics. Using ethical strategies and principles, nurses can evaluate the situation in a way that supports decision-making.
One of the ethical issues affecting today’s healthcare providers is pain management. This area of practice poses many challenges for care providers due to the need for managing pain successfully without harming the patient. As explained by Paschkis and Potter, opioids are the most effective pain management option, but many care providers fear to prescribe them due to a high risk of addiction or misuse. In these cases, patients may suffer from insufficient pain management, which could affect their quality of life. Hence, the two primary ethical principles involved in pain management are beneficence and nonmaleficence (Campbell, 2013). On the one hand, the principle of beneficence dictates that the most effective option should be used to manage the patient’s pain. On the other hand, addiction to and misuse of prescription drugs could harm the patient in the long term. The provider must evaluate the patient’s risks and choose the right pain management option for them. The application of various ethical theories may also help to identify ways of balancing the two ethical principles.
To make ethical decisions in regular practice, nurses have to develop everyday ethical competence. Milliken states that this can be achieved through building awareness and learning ethical theory and moral philosophy. Additionally, improving moral resilience and promoting an ethical culture in the workplace could assist nurses in supporting ethical decision-making (Milliken, 2017). All in all, making ethical choices should be among the key priorities of a nurse working in today’s healthcare environment, and nursing education should support this focus through instruction in bioethics.
References
Campbell, A. V. (2013). Bioethics: The basics. London, UK: Routledge.
Catlin, A. (2014). The hospital ethics committee and the nurse. Advances in Neonatal Care, 14(6), 398-402.
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical Awareness: What it is and why it matters.OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1). Web.
Milliken, A. (2017). Toward everyday ethics: Strategies for shifting perspectives. AACN Advanced Critical Care, 28(3), 291-296.
Paschkis, Z., & Potter, M. L. (2015). CE: Acute pain management for inpatients with opioid use disorder. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 115(9), 24-32.