Respect for autonomy requires that patients be told the truth about their condition and informed about the risk and benefits of treatment. Our system of law supports autonomy and, as a corollary, upholds the right of individuals to make decisions about their own healthcare. We espouse great respect for individual rights and equate freedom with autonomy. The Principle of Autonomy: Personal FreedomĪutonomy is an American value. In health fields, veracity and fidelity are also spoken of as ethical principles but they are not part of the foundational ethical principles identified by bioethicists. These principles include (1) autonomy, (2) beneficence, (3) nonmaleficence, and (4) justice. The language of biomedical ethics is applied across all practice settings, and four basic principles are commonly accepted by bioethicists. They are intended to provide a reminder of standards of conduct: that the nurse has a duty to keep confidentiality, maintain competence, and safeguard patients from unethical practice (Lyons, 2011). The code is currently under revision, with the revised code of ethics expected in late 2014.Ĭodes of ethics are broadly written and are not meant to serve as a blueprint for ethical decision making. Last modified in 2001, it contains nine provisions, which detail “the ethical obligations and duties of every individual who enters the nursing profession (ANA, 2001). The first code of ethics for nurses was suggested by the American Nurses Association in 1926 and adopted in 1950 (Lyons, 2011).įor generations, nurses have taken seriously their Code of Ethics and their role as those who “promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety and rights of the patient.” The American Nurses Association maintains the current code of ethics for the nursing profession, called A Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. An ethical pledge for nurses-a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath called the Nightingale Pledge-was developed by Lystra Gretter in 1893. Nursing Code of EthicsĮthical practice guidelines have been around since the early days of nursing. Two of the most common types of potential legal actions against healthcare providers for injuries resulting from healthcare involve lack of informed consent and violation of the standard of care (Brock & Mastroianni, 2013). In every society laws often have a strong moral standard (Porter, 2001). Laws are changed frequently to reflect societal needs. Law also sets out penalties for those who violate these rules. The law establishes the rules that define a person’s rights and obligations. Laws can be created either through legislation, which is called statutory law, or by opinions written by judges in court cases, which is called case law (Center for Bioethics, n.d.). Law is the set of enforced rules under which a society is governed. Bioethics covers a broad set of possible topics such as ethical standards and moral problems created by the practice of medicine, ethical issues in neuroscience, protection of research participants, privacy issues raised by genome sequencing, and research with children.Ĭlinical ethics is a discipline or methodology for considering the ethical implications of medical technologies, policies, and treatments, with special attention to determining what ought to be done (or not done) in the delivery of healthcare (Brock & Mastroianni, 2013). It is a system of principles and rules of conduct recognized and accepted by a specific group or culture. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with right and wrong.
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