Samantha Heath

UNE Nursing Student

Category: Ethics

Disaster Nursing

September 22, 2022 /

Nurses need to be familiar with their own hospitals emergency safety plans as well as safety plans produced by Joint Commission. Plans such as a Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) and an Emergency Operating Plan (EOP) are two resources that hospitals have to create clear structure and instruction in the event of a disaster or emergency. Nurses are known for being quick to act and always need to be ready in the event that some of the emergency protocols need to be followed. The nurses main goal is patient safety and maintaining the safest environment possible for all patients in the hospital.

Nurses have a duty to self and a duty to patients for safety. Nurses must keep their own lives safe in order to be able to care for and treat as many patients as possible if an emergency or disaster were to occur. Therefore I think if nurses try to keep themselves safe before trying to treat or care for others, it would be the best case scenario for all. The more nurses are safe, the more patients they will be able to then save.  When triaging patients after a disaster or emergency has occurred the nurse must then think about the severity of each patient and assess based on greatest patient need. 

Ethical Considerations for EBP

April 26, 2022 /

My views have mostly stayed the same. I think it is so important to know  the history and  evolution of principles of ethics to understand that patient care  has evolved in its entirety in order to provide the best care possible for the patients.  Achieving our course objectives have definitely increased my knowledge about research and its role in ethics and in the healthcare setting. Evidence-based practice is what drives innovation in the  science world and it helps to  create the safest outcomes for patients possible  based on practices implemented after trials and research of its own.

Assumptions

April 25, 2022 /

I think nurses’ role in healthcare ethics is that no matter our personal morals and values, we have to care for each individual under the same standards of care and hold all patients in the same regard. Nurses are there for the patients and spend the most time interacting with patients. This means we get to know the patients the most and nurses can be a great patient advocate in ethical situations where ethics committees may need to be involved. Nurses can make sure that ethics committees are contacted if there is an issue of ethics such as a child wanting one thing for their health and their guardian wanting something else.

There may be different sides arguing an ethical issue but nurses can provide healthcare professional perspective and also patient advocacy, along with many other valuable team members on an ethics committee. Nurses can use evidenced based practice journal articles providing information that is relevant to ethics cases and use that to help with the ethical decisions. Nurses can help provide research knowledge that will help their patients as well. Nurses can also advocate for more research in aspects that there are not enough research studies yet to help patients that are looking for help or answers about their health conditions.

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