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As a DNP-prepared nurse, your role in upholding ethical considerations is paramount in-patient care. Patient confidentiality, a crucial aspect of ethical nursing practice, relies on your diligence to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of patients’ personal information. This involves ensuring that patient information is only shared on a need-to-know basis and protected from unauthorized access or disclosure. Your involvement in patient treatment disagreements, which presents unique ethical challenges, underscores your importance in providing compassionate care, communication, and support for the best treatments while also respecting their autonomy and ensuring that their wishes are respected. This may involve having clear conversations with patients and their families and helping them navigate complex ethical considerations. Overall, your ethical responsibilities as a DNP-prepared nurse are significant, and it’s essential to stay informed about ethical issues in nursing practice to ensure that you provide the highest quality of care to your patients.
Ethical conflicts can arise when individuals have different goals related to care and outcomes. These conflicts can be especially challenging when disagreements about treatment seem impossible to resolve. In some cases, patients, surrogates, or clinicians may feel that their goals are being blocked because others have incompatible goals (Pavlish et al., 2020). The primary ethical conflicts perceived in the ICU relate to medical decision-making and treatment goals, especially regarding the benefit or harm of aggressive treatment (Pavlish et al., 2020). These conflicts can be particularly challenging in aggressive treatment and end-of-life care, where multiple ethical principles may conflict, including autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice (Pavlish et al., 2020). In such situations, healthcare professionals, including DNP-prepared nurses, must navigate complex ethical dilemmas while providing compassionate, patient-centered care. This may require a collaborative approach involving patients, caregivers, and other healthcare professionals to ensure that the patient’s wishes and values are respected while upholding ethical principles. One key issue in these conflicts is the role of surrogate decision-makers, who may have differing views on the patient’s care goals and treatment options. In such cases, healthcare professionals must work closely with surrogates to ensure the patient’s wishes and values are respected while upholding ethical principles. Overall, navigating ethical conflicts requires careful consideration of multiple ethical principles, effective communication, and collaboration among healthcare professionals, patients, and their families. By upholding ethical principles and providing compassionate, patient-centered care, DNP-prepared nurses can help ensure patients receive the highest quality care possible while respecting their autonomy and values. Ethical conflicts can arise when patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals disagree about treatment and care goals (Pavlish et al., 2020). This can happen when the goals of one-party conflict with those of the others, leading to intractable situations, particularly in the case of end-of-life care (Pavlish et al., 2020). Such conflicts can be challenging to resolve and require a collaborative effort to ensure that ethical principles are upheld while providing compassionate, patient-centered care.
Another ethical conflict often arises in healthcare settings is the tension between patient confidentiality and the need for information sharing among healthcare professionals and family members (Dowie, 2024). For instance, patients may wish to keep their medical condition private from their family members, but the healthcare team may need to disclose this information to provide appropriate care. Striking a balance between respecting the patient’s privacy rights and ensuring effective communication and collaboration among healthcare providers can be a complex ethical dilemma. When it comes to confidentiality, it is your duty as a DNP-prepared nurse to protect the patient’s privacy by keeping their personal health information confidential and secure. This includes refraining from sharing their information with anyone who is not directly involved in their care unless they have given explicit permission to do so. By upholding these ethical principles, you can help ensure that your patients receive the highest quality care possible while respecting their autonomy and privacy.
Nurses may also encounter ethical dilemmas related to their personal beliefs or values conflicting with their professional obligations to provide care. This can be particularly challenging when religious or cultural beliefs differ from those of the patient or the healthcare organization. In such situations, nurses must balance their personal beliefs with their professional responsibilities while ensuring they do not compromise patient care quality.
When contemplating a new ethical challenge that may arise in my role as a DNP-prepared nurse, one significant issue is resource allocation, encompassing time, staff, and equipment. The judicious allocation of resources is paramount for quality care and patient safety. However, this can be challenging due to factors like staff shortages, inadequate equipment, and time constraints. In such instances, you must prioritize tasks and make decisions in the best interest of your patients while operating within the organization’s limitations. This underscores the necessity for continuous learning and professional growth in your role.
In summary, ethical challenges related to the organization or at the point of care can be complex and demanding for nurses. However, by upholding their professional responsibilities and working collaboratively with patients, families, and other healthcare professionals, nurses can provide compassionate, patient-centered care while navigating these ethical dilemmas.
References
Dowie, I. (2024). The law and professional considerations of confidentiality. British Journal of Community Nursing, 29(4), 160–161. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2024.29.4.160Links to an external site.
Pavlish, C. L., Henriksen, J., Brown-Saltzman, K., Robinson, E. M., Warda, U. S., Farra, C., Chen, B., & Jakel, P. (2020). A Team-Based Early Action Protocol to Address Ethical Concerns in the Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 29(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2020915Links to an external site.
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