Ethics in Nursing

The Nursing Code of Ethics began in 1893 with the "Nightingale Pledge" which was patterned after the Hippocratic Oath in medicine, and is understood as the first code of nursing ethics (ANA, 2003). The Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States of America and Canada, which was later to become the American Nurses Association, was established in 1896 to maintain the code of ethics for nurses. The first published version of the code appeared in the American Journal of Nursing in 1926, and another in 1940, but these were not formally adopted. A Code for Professional Nurses was finally accepted in 1950, and has been revised several times since then, with a complete revision in 2001 as the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements.

Although there is emphasis placed on collaboration in patient care in nursing, each nurse is individually responsible and accountable for their own practice (ANA/Provisions 4-6, 2003). Accountability is interp

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y commitment to the patient, and the nurses' obligation to respect the patients' right to privacy. The ethics of confidentiality issues are now covered by the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act (HIPAA). Nurses should address the question of human dignity by treating patient's as they would wish to be treated themselves, which is derived from Kant's rationalist theory. Nurses must be fully aware of the moral and legal rights of patients to self-determination, and must ensure that patients understand their treatment options and the nature and consequences of any treatments they are undergoing. Care of the dying or those near death may bring up many ethical and moral dilemmas for the nurse (ANA/Provisions 1-3, 2003). While a nurse must respect a patient's right to self-determination, he/she may never do anything to hasten a patient's death, even though he/she may realize that their acts of relieving suffering may hasten a patient's death. They may never act in a deliberate manner to bring about a patient's death. At times, supporting the patients' autonomy may be detrimental to others, such as causing a public health risk, and at these times the Code does allow limiting such authority as ap
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1228
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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