Journal Reflection #1
Provision 4: “The nurse is responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice and determines the appropriate delegation of tasks consistent with the nurse’s obligation to provide optimum patient care.”
Imagine you are the head nurse in a senior living facility. You have 36 residents; normally there are two nurses with four nursing assistants. It is night shift, and the other nurse was in an accident on the way to work. Hence, it is you, 36 residents, and four CNAs. One of the CNAs is due to graduate from nursing school in one month. 30 of the 36 patients have 9 PM medicine due.
- To get medicine to the patients on time, would you allow the CNA who is close to finishing school to help administer the medicine? Would this be an appropriate delegation of tasks, considering that an RN must complete medication administration? Which is more important: delegation of tasks or timely medication administration for patients?
Journal Reflection #2
Provision 5: “The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to preserve integrity and safety, to maintain competence, and to continue personal and professional growth.”
Imagine you are nurse who is six months pregnant (guys, stretch that imagination). You arrive to the hospital and check your patient assignment. One patient in your assignment is receiving high-dose chemotherapy medication, which, in this case, is contraindicated for pregnant women to administer. You ask the charge nurse to change the assignment, and he refuses based on the acuity of the patient. He notes that other nurses on staff tonight are too new to care for such a sick patient.
- Who is ethically right: the charge nurse trying to ensure a high-acuity patient has appropriate nursing care or you the nurse? Build an argument for your opinion.
Journal Reflection #3
Provision 6: “The nurse participates in establishing, maintaining, and improving health care environments and conditions of employment conducive to the provision of quality health care and consistent with the values of the profession through individual and collective action.”
- How would a nurse contribute to the values of the nursing profession on an individual basis and through collective action?
Journal Reflection #4
Provision 7: “The nurse participates in the advancement of the profession through contributions to practice, education, administration, and knowledge development.”
- Why would the advancement of the profession of nursing be included in a code of ethics? How do ethics and advancing professional practice relate to one another?
Journal Reflection #5
Provision 8: “The nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public in promoting community, national and international efforts to meet health needs.”
- To what extent are medical personnel responsible for caring for community, national, and international health care needs? Comment on each type of need: community, national, and international. What role does an individual, a hospital system, and the larger federal government play?
Journal Reflection #6
Provision 9: “The profession of nursing value, for maintaining the integrity of the profession and its practice, and for shaping social policy.”
- In your own words, define integrity as it relates to nursing. Can personal and professional integrity be separated? In other words, can a person have little personal integrity but maintain professional integrity? Why or why not? We will discuss ethical concerns of vulnerable populations at another point in the class. However, briefly note the role of ethics in shaping social policy in health care.
