Nurses deal with ethical issues and dilemma in their practice due to a host of issues, values, principles, and norms that govern the profession. The American Nurses’ Association’s Code of Ethics sets goals and values for the nursing profession and guides nurses when making decisions in their daily practice (Bilmes, 2020). The association reviews this code regularly to reflect the myriad challenges that nurses encounter and presents a social contract between the professionals and the public. The purpose of this paper is to address a host of ethical issues that nurses face in care provision and their effects on optimal care delivery.
Nurses strive to provide the best possible care to diverse clients under consistently changing conditions. From the medications administered to the type of dressing used to heal a wound, nurses apply procedures that have been tested through research and deemed appropriate according to evidence-based standards of practice. Through foundational knowledge related to research methods, translation of research data is used to improve nursing practice and, ultimately, patient outcomes. Therefore, nurses must become familiar with the specific language of scientific research and the research process. As health care professionals, nurses seek to provide their patients with the best possible health care. To determine which approaches to care result in the best possible care, the effectiveness of each approach specific to a chosen population must be investigated. The pursuit of knowledge is the basis for research. Researchers seek to find answers to various scientific questions, but there are the boundaries associated with the pursuit of knowledge (Helbig, 2018).
Struggles When Addressing End-of-Life Issues
The goal of end-of-life care for patients is to prevent and relieve suffering where possible while respecting their desires and values based on the principles of autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Because the decisions may affect patient’s family members and even society, healthcare workers should protect the rights, dignity, and vigor of all stakeholders involved in the shared clinical ethical decision-making process (Akdeniz et al., 2021).Advances in modern medicine and medical technologies continue to prolong life expectancies and have altered the natural norms of death. While these treatments and technologies may not offer a cure for chronic condition, interventions like artificial nutrition and respiratory support prolong the lives of individuals by offering secondary support (Akdeniz et al., 2021). As such, providers must create a balance as they contemplate end-of-life issues in a society that is increasingly becoming permissive and valuing personal autonomy as opposed to communal expectations on death based on existing practices, norms and perspectives about the issue.
Differences between Allowing a Patient to Die and Physician-Assisted Suicide
The debate on aiding patients to die with the aim of relieving them from natural pain and agony, and the need to let them face death naturally raises a host of ethical concerns and issues that impact effective decision-making. Individuals are expected to die a natural death (Goligher et al., 2018). However, situations like terminal and chronic illnesses create significant pain for individuals and the need to be helped which erode their perceived human dignity and autonomy.
Allowing patients to die means that the physician withdraws all life-sustaining support like respiratory support and artificial nutrition. Such a decision borders on euthanasia or mercy killing. However, due to the agony and pain that patients may endure before dying, others and their families may have advance directives that they get physician-assisted suicide. Therefore, the primary differences between allowing a patient to die and physician-assisted suicide are the former happens based on the concept of euthanasia or mercy killing(Mehta et al., 2019). In many cases, individuals with chronic or terminal conditions may have advanced directives that mandate aspects like “Not to resuscitate,” or “no life support” and “No artificial nutrition.” Based on these principles, the providers are compelled to allow the patient to die by withdrawing any life-saving or sustaining intervention.
Conversely, physician-assisted-suicide is a process where a patient and their family knowingly signs consent for the physician to help them to have a peaceful death. This entail offering someone strong sedatives to use to end their life or allowing them to die in places where assisted suicide is legal to end their life (Goligher et al., 2018). Therefore, allowing a patient to die and physician-assisted-suicide are different based on the procedures and legal frameworks as more jurisdictions accept euthanasia but
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