Personal ethics in Healthcare

Personal Ethics
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Personal Ethics
Human beings are normally shaped by their personal memories, emotions, experiences, and knowledge affecting their reasoning, perceptions, and how they judge people and various situations. All these factors act as the baseline for an individual's personal ethical philosophy. Personal philosophy/worldview controls a person's behavior, and contributes to a person's inspiration and motivation. A nurse is required to put into consideration the client's worldview in order to examine their health without any barriers. Professional nurses ought to know their worldview so that they can provide the required medical care efficiently (Dossey & Keegan, 2013). This paper explores personal, cultural, and spiritual values of a nurse; and how they influence his/her worldview and philosophy of nursing.
It is important for nurses to distinguish between their professional ethics and personal values. Ethics entails various standards of conduct and moral judgment. The main healthcare ethics that must be upheld in all situations include beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and justice. Beneficence is the obligation to do the correct thing. Nonmaleficence means nurses should avoid causing harm to their patients. They must ensure competence when administering medication to avoid causing suffering to their patients. Autonomy involves independence and self-control. Patients have the right to accept or reject treatment. Nurses are supposed to respect their patient's decisions. In addition, nurses face issues of justice on daily basis. As a result, they should offer their services in a fair manner.
On the other hand, personal values involve what nurses hold significant and true for themselves. Values represent a way of life, and they can be expressed in behaviors, language or in standards of conduct that a person endorses or tries to maintain. Values can be either moral or non-moral. Moral values include the values that are attributed to human actions or character traits. For instance, nurses who value protection of fetal life will not participate in termination of pregnancy because he/she believes the right thing to do is to preserve life.
Nurses are supposed to observe dignity when handling their patients. They should show self-respect of human beings. For example, if a certain treatment can endanger a client's life, they should avoid it or exercise precaution when administering it. Respect of human life also involves avoiding some evil acts such as abortion. If a pregnancy is not endangering the life of the client, it should be avoided. As a nurse, I prefer saving a life, but not terminating it. Therefore, in of the cases where a nurse is supposed terminate a client's pregnancy, I might find myself in an ethical dilemma. In addition, a nurse must exercise the highest level of confidentiality with his/her clients. Information concerning the client's h...