Pressure ulcers represent a considerable burden for the patients, both in terms of money spent on healthcare and quality of life. The study by Welsh (2014) identifies that one in every five patients in the acute care sector may develop a pressure ulcer in the UK. From both a policy and a practice standpoint, ethical difficulties around responsibility may emerge for professionals working in pressure ulcer prevention. When dealing with ethical difficulties, doctors may find it helpful to resort to ethical theories and principles to develop frameworks (Welsh, 2014). However, these theories have been criticized for their overgeneralization and simplicity.
Various ethical theories are often taken into consideration with regard to nursing. According to deontology, a sense of intrinsic obligation should be followed consistently and without fail (Welsh, 2014). Although the deontological approach has been criticized by feminist theorists as paternalistic and authoritarian, it undercuts the nursing profession’s innate sense of care. On the other hand, utilitarianism argues that the effects of acts, rather than concepts of obligation, decide whether they are right or bad (Welsh, 2014).
There are also ethics-based principles such as beneficence — doing what is best for the patient. Respecting uniqueness and treating patients with dignity are examples of beneficence in pressure ulcer prevention, as is the proper use of evidence-based instruments like the Waterlow Score to assess the risk of skin injury (Welsh, 2014). In practice, such ethical approaches may often conflict with other professional obligations of the nurse.
In consideration of the situation when the patient develops a pressure ulcer due to the understaffed care-providing facility, a nurse may hesitate to disclose the potential severity of the problem. The nurse may be torn between the idea of beneficence and a sense of loyalty to the institution or other nurses (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2018). Professional ethics would obligate the nurse to take direct action addressing the issue, that is, to inform the patient and be at risk of being dismissed, file a complaint to the hospital management, or attract media attention addressing the issue of lacking cadres (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2018). Nevertheless, pressure ulcers are becoming more widely recognized as a form of patient injury. As a result, it’s critical that healthcare providers and individual doctors use standardized, quantifiable methods to avoid them.
References
Burkhardt, M. A., & Nathaniel, A. K. (2018). Ethics & Issues In Contemporary Nursing – E-Book. Elsevier.
Welsh, L. (2014). Ethical issues and accountability in pressure ulcer prevention. Nursing Standard, 29(8), 56–63. Web.