Nurses are critical in the healthcare sector and provide one of the most essential forms of care at all times (Guido, 2020). It is important that nurses ensure that they deliver the best available care. To help the nurses in making sane and informed decisions, different ethical theories and principles can be applied to ensure efficient implementation of the process.
Different theories can be used to offer guidelines on the different attributes of care and improve overall patient outcomes (Pozgar, 2020). Theories can also be essential in guiding the correct model of operation in terms of ethics and morality. In my nursing career, there have been times that I have used ethical theories and principles in a clinical practice setting
The patient I was attending to was depicting various mental health symptoms which required me to take initiative and ensure that their needs were met. To better help the patient, I applied the use of the bioethical principle of nursing by ensuring that I exercised beneficence and maleficence. The patient was not in the right mindset to make decisions but offered suggestions on what they wanted. During the assessment, I made use of beneficence to ensure that all the decisions and practices are in the best interest of the patient.
Maleficence was used to ensure that all the measures were taken to prevent or mitigate any form of harm that might affect the patients. All the different principles were implemented while adhering to the Jean Watson theory of caring which requires a nurse to maintain an efficient environment while at the same time improving care delivery.
References
Guido, G. W. (2020). Legal and ethical issues in nursing (7th ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780134701233.
Pozgar, G. D. (2020). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals (5th ed.). Jones and Bartlett.
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