Medicine is a field that requires you to adhere to a strict moral and ethical code while saving lives. Doctors and nurses possess alarming autonomy over the life of any patient they treat. They can choose to help them or can worsen the situation and exploit them. Not every individual can realize the need to exercise caution with such power and can go astray. That is why there’s an existential urgency to reinforce this idea and promote ethical practice environment.
With that said, the largest body offering medical assistance at any facility are nurses. They are also the most influential factor in changing the situation and strengthening the foundation of ethical practices for enhanced patient care. Patients might give the doctors more credit for their health, but it is the nurses that spend more time looking after them. They take care of their comfort, record changes in their condition, prepare medical reports, and ensure that they get the necessary treatment. That outlines the significance of the role of nurses and how they contribute to improving medicine.
Expanding the scope of their capacity, they can choose to influence the sector using their potentials. By practicing affirming conduct, they make room for the right ethical nursing practice to prevail. The most excellent way to achieve it is by extending their horizons and aiming for professional growth. Preferring to advance to a DNS or MSN from being a registered nurse can enable them to impose their values with strong leadership. That should allow them to develop a strong foundation for this objective.
Here is a more descript outline to help you understand how their role is pivotal in creating an ethical practice environment.
Table of Contents
1. Changing Personal Practices
Any significant change starts from within. The same ideology applies to nurses when it comes to focusing on the ethics of medicine. They can start by polishing their conduct and manner while serving in this capacity.
Developing a strong sense of providing care and support regardless of their personal beliefs is a part of their job. Doing this with the primary motive of healthcare makes them reliable and pure at it.
Executing this without misusing their power to cause harm to the already suffering patient should be their goal. They need to be faithful and honest with their practices and empathize with patients to understand their pain.
While doing so, they also need to acknowledge that they can’t conceal or modify any medically relevant information. It is the right of every patient to know their options and the consequences of going down that path. Should a nurse decide to ignore this, she can no longer support the ethics she’s promoting because of this critical violation of them.
In an adequately ethical setting, truthfulness should always be the norm for any nurse. Not only does it make them better at their jobs and have a clear conscience, but it also provides patients with their rightful authority.
2. Exercising Leadership
Serving in the capacity of a leading nurse allows them to make their ambitions contagious to the rest of the staff. They can work on bringing them over to a more compassionate side and connect them with the right values while dealing with patients.
Following a well-defined protocol is a suitable beginning to this. Identifying the problem and collecting information can help best comprehend the patient’s pain. That, in turn, allows nurses to foster sympathy for them while maintaining a clear picture of their goal.
Advancing with the same approach, they need to address the need for analyzing all the data and going with the best possible solution. That ensures immediate care and recovery of patients and restore them to good health.
Observing this process and working with a professional with substantial ethical values can be impactful to the career of other nurses. They can adapt, evaluate, and improve their understanding and conduct while serving in this area. Hence, supporting the ulterior motive of their job.
3. Empowering Patients
By establishing these practices and applying them to the professional setting, they also empower patients in matters concerning their well-being. That enables them to trust the people working for them and build a relationship on that basis. It makes nurses realize the contribution they make to this society by fulfilling their roles and saving lives. This idea reminds of them of the essence of their job and motivates them to continue offering their services with the same diligence. Thus, indirectly supporting the ethical practice environment that the field of medicine warrants.
4. Discussing Scenarios & Problems
Medicine is a field related to anatomy, but it is impossible to detach all human emotions and sentiments while working. That arises the need for them to discuss what they experience and feel to clear their conscience. It is also the best way to draw satisfactory conclusions and act on them in their professional life instead of giving in to their inclinations.
Plus, sharing medical problems and working together can help come up with better ways of dealing with particular situations. That results in providing quality patient care and ensuring that their motives remain pure.
Neglecting this aspect of a nurse’s profession might deviate them and break the confinements of the environment they are trying to achieve. That is why discussing medical situations serve as the necessary reality check to stick for clarity of intentions.
Summary
To sum it up, professional nurses possess great control and authority in a medical setting and can shape opinions. Choosing to overlook the responsibility entrusted to them might get them to lose focus. Such a situation can prove fatal in the field of medicine. That is why every member of the nursing body needs to practice and promote an extraordinary ethical environment.