THE ROLE OF NURSING & ABORTION Intro

This research considers the role of nursing in relation to abortion. Nurses in the 1990s are confronted with an array of issues that contain moral dimensions (Clarke, 1991, pp. 2225). These issues run the gamut from considerations of a patient's right to die, to adhering to physicians' "do not resuscitate" orders, to cheating in clinical research, and to the role of the nurse in questions of abortion (Hoyer, 1991, pp. 170173; Silva, 1991, pp. 6979; Yarling, 1990a, pp. 327334)).

Research has found that a decision to abort or not to abort is difficult for a woman, regardless of the circumstances and the nature of the decision (Hall, pp. 3235). Research has also found that many women experience difficulty in verbally expressing their feeling with respect to a decision concerning an abortion (Fraser, 1990, pp. 4547).

Within the discipline of professional nursing, disparate opinion also exists with respect to the abortion issue (Silva, 1991, pp. 6979). There are prolife nurses and prochoice nurses, as there are prolife and prochoice proponents in the general population. There are also professional nurses who are ambivalent towards this volatile issue (Silva, 1991, pp. 6979).

The professional nurse has a primary responsibility to serve her or his patients. The personal values of individual nurses both should and do influence the approach to the discharge of professional responsibility. The general

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Orem's theory of nursing is commonly known as the selfcare deficit theory of nursing (Chinn, Jacobs, and Huether, 1991, p. 190). Orem's selfcare model is an interactionist model, which implies that the whole is greater than its parts. The model provides a framework for the education and support of patients in the development of effective selfcare behavior (Feathers, 1989, pp. 369376). Selfcare is defined as the practice of activities by individuals which they personally initiate and perform in their own behalf in maintaining their own life, health, and wellbeing. Within this context, I contend that any decision related to abortion is the prerogative of the individual client, not the professional nurse. The selfcare model is structured around six central concepts and one peripheral concept. The six central concepts are (1) selfcare, (2) selfcare agency, (3) therapeutic selfcare demand, (4) selfcare agency, (5) nursing agency, and (6) nursing system, while the peripheral concept is a set of basic conditioning factors. Within this structure, I contend that the role of the professional nurse with respect to abortion is to help the client in articulating the problem, identifying options, and gathering and understandi
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Approximate Word count = 2924
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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