Healthcare Professional Code of Ethics

Healthcare Professional Code of Ethics
Based on the American Nurses Association (ANA), caregivers are expected to behave professionally and ethically. In that light, the nursing code of ethics is vital since it is a guide that carries out nursing responsibilities in a way that is consistent with ethical obligations and the quality of the profession. In other words, moral principles show how professionals should conduct themselves. The paper focuses on the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics for caregivers and depicts its relevance in the nursing profession.
The selected professional code of ethics is the ICN Code of Ethics. In particular, the ICN Code of Ethics was adopted in 1953 by the ICN. Since then, it has been revised and reviewed various times to ensure that it achieves the set objectives within the realm of the highly dynamic nursing profession. The ICN Code of Ethics portrays that caregivers have four fundamental or primary responsibilities. Nurses are expected to promote health, alleviate suffering, restore health, and prevent illness (International Council of Nurses, 2012). These professionals should always respect human rights, including the right to life, cultural rights, and choice of treatment, without forgetting to handle people with the dignity and integrity they deserve. Caregivers should not discriminate against individuals due to their skin color, culture, race, age, disability, nationality, social status, sexual orientation, gender, and political affiliation.
The ICN Code of Ethics covers various major areas of nursing. Specifically, it reminds nurses that they are supposed to promote people’s health, restore health, alleviate suffering, and prevent diseases. Caregivers are reminded that they should treat individuals with respect and dignity without discriminating against specific group of people due to their differences. They should foster an environment where human values, rights, spiritual beliefs, and customers are respected (International Council of Nurses, 2012). Nurses should be responsible and accountable for their practice and are expected to continue learning and obtain relevant knowledge and skills. They should use evidence-based practice and collaborate with other professionals to build and maintain a trusting relationship (Stievano & Tschudin, 2019). All these areas covered by the ICN Code of Ethics are crucial to the nursing profession since they help caregivers provide quality healthcare services to all individuals without any form of discrimination.
Although the ICN Code of Ethics covers numerous crucial areas, some things are missing, which are relevant to the nursing profession. Based on ANA, professional nursing entails promoting, optimizing, and protecting people’s health by preventing diseases, alleviating suffering via proper diagnosis and treatment, and educating individuals, families, populations, and communications (Epstein & Turner, 2015). One of the primary areas that are left out is the importance of technology in fostering quality healthcare services. Nurses should use technology to ensure that they offer proper medical services to their patients. For instance, they can teach specific communities how to prevent diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, by changing their lifestyles. Moreover, the use of technological devices can enable them to determine vulnerable groups of individuals and help them to overcome potential illnesses.
Nurses are emphasized to provide proper medical services by respecting their patients regardless of their differences. However, another area that is omitted by the ICN Code of Ethics is the significance of effective communication in promoting patient-centered care. Caregivers and their patients should ensure that they communicate well and understand each other since it hastens the recovery process. Notably, patient-centered communication is essential in promoting optimal health outcomes (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021). Nurses come across patients from different backgrounds, some of which differ in cultural beliefs or norms. Nevertheless, these professionals should always ensure that they interact with their patients well to build a trusting relationship, which is the foundation of the treatment process. Besides, it is difficult for a sick person to share his or her medical history or mention things that can facilitate treatment without trusting his or her healthcare provider. That is why effective communication is crucial since it brings caregivers and their patients together and enables them to work together to ensure that the latter get quality healthcare services.
Effective communication involves a two-way dialogue that takes place between healthcare providers and their patients. Both parties are required to speak and be listened to carefully to capture all relevant information. For example, they can ask questions, exchange information, seek clarification on specific things, or express their opinions (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021). However, the most significant thing is that nurses should respect their patient's ...