Introduction: Ethics in Nursing Practice
Nursing ethics play a crucial role in shaping the behavior and decisions of nurses in clinical settings. The nursing profession is committed to mentoring and nurturing excellent nurses to ensure quality care for patients. Nurses, much like human service professionals, operate within the bounds of well-defined ethical principles. These principles serve as a moral compass, especially in dealing with diverse patients, each carrying unique values, beliefs, and life experiences.
One of the core components of nursing ethics involves respecting patient wishes – a nurse’s duty to honor the cultural and personal beliefs of the people they care for. This blog explores a healthcare scenario through the lens of the virtue ethics test and community harmony test, two essential ethical tools in modern nursing.
Applying the Virtue Ethics Test in Nursing
What Promotes Human Flourishing?
In the virtue ethics test, a key question asked is: What promotes human flourishing? According to VanderWeele (2020), living a happy and satisfying life drives human development and well-being. Moral virtues such as honesty, integrity, and respect shape a person’s behavior and enable them to make sound decisions.
Within the framework of nursing ethics, the nurse in our case study would be ethically guided to inform the physician that the patient had changed her mind and now wished to receive treatment. Respecting this new decision aligns with the nurse’s obligation to uphold the patient’s evolving needs and personal agency.
What Is the Purpose of Professional Practice?
Every professional discipline serves a unique purpose. In the case of nursing, it is the provision of safe, compassionate, and ethical care to patients. According to the American Nurses Association (2015), nursing ethics calls for nurses to protect the dignity, rights, and safety of all individuals.
Excellence in nursing practice is achieved when a nurse embodies these values in every interaction. This includes respecting patient wishes – even when they change – and advocating for those wishes in the clinical setting. In this scenario, the ethical choice under the virtue ethics test would be to proceed with the blood transfusion.
Does the Virtue Ethics Test Offer New Perspectives?
Yes. Often, ethical thinking is limited to utilitarian or rule-based (deontological) approaches. The virtue ethics testintroduces a character-centered framework that emphasizes moral development and self-improvement. It demonstrates that being a good nurse is not just about following rules – it’s about embodying virtues that guide right action, especially when complexities arise in patient care.
Exploring the Community Harmony Test
Promoting Community Harmony in Nursing
The community harmony test, grounded in Confucian ethics, emphasizes moral character and communal balance. In nursing, this principle guides nurses to uphold dignity and advocate for peaceful, respectful relationships among patients, families, and healthcare teams.
In our case study, community harmony would best be achieved by the nurse respecting the patient’s expressed wishes and notifying the physician of the change. Doing so upholds trust and reduces emotional conflict among the family and medical team.
Rituals and Roles in Community Healthcare
Cultural and religious rituals play an essential role in shaping how patients and families deal with medical care. As Jehovah’s Witnesses, the patient and her husband initially resisted blood transfusions based on deeply held beliefs. Supporting and gently guiding patients through medical transitions, while honoring their values, fosters community harmony and promotes emotional healing during vulnerable times (Nelson-Becker & Sangster, 2019).
What Is Nursing’s Role in Society?
Nurses are central figures in building healthy, informed, and harmonious communities. Through education, care, advocacy, and support, nurses help patients adapt to changing health needs while maintaining respect for personal beliefs. As noted by Poorchangizi et al. (2019), the nursing profession is instrumental in both healing individuals and enhancing societal well-being.
Balancing Ethical Frameworks in Patient Care
Contrasting the Virtue and Community Harmony Tests
- The virtue ethics test suggests the nurse should inform the physician and proceed with the blood transfusion to uphold the patient’s changed wish and promote human flourishing.
- The community harmony test, on the other hand, highlights the importance of honoring the husband’s concerns and the family’s original cultural stance, potentially advising against the transfusion.
This ethical tension illustrates the complexity of nursing ethics, where a nurse must weigh multiple, sometimes conflicting, obligations.
Conclusion: A Dual-Ethics Approach in Nursing Practice
In summary, both the virtue ethics test and community harmony test offer valuable perspectives in the real-world application of nursing ethics. While virtue ethics encourages integrity, compassion, and flourishing through action, community ethics centers around harmony, cultural sensitivity, and shared understanding.
Ultimately, respecting patient wishes – while considering family dynamics and cultural beliefs—is foundational to quality nursing care. Ethical nursing practice is not only about doing what’s clinically right but also what’s morally appropriate for each unique individual and their community.
References
- American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics with interpretative statements. nursingworld.org
- Nelson-Becker, H., & Sangster, K. (2018). Recapturing the power of ritual to enhance community in aging. Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, 31(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2018.1532858
- Poorchangizi, B., Borhani, F., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Farokhzadian, J. (2019). The importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective. BMC Nursing, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0351-1
- VanderWeele, T. J. (2020). Activities for flourishing: An evidence-based guide. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 4(1), 79-91.
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