TheThe Nurse’s Role in Ethics and Human Rights Essay

The Nurse's Role in Ethics and Human Rights
Name
Institution
Course
Professor
Date
The Nurse's Role in Ethics and Human Rights
Nurses must ensure they uphold the values and ethics of the protection and advocate for human rights protection. In their duties, nurses meet a different situation, which may place them in a dilemma of upholding ethics or disregarding human rights. In such situations, nurses are often required to critically view their ethics and find ways to not interfere with human rights. Human rights are often at the top of the profession and give the nurses specific actions designed to protect and promote these rights in their practice. The American Nursing Association has various position statements that nurses can adopt to define the relationship between nurses' ethical obligations, the concept of human rights, and professional practice.
The American Nursing Association (ANA) holds that Healthcare polity impacts nursing professionals and the broader public. Under this position, the entity adds that registered nurses have to adhere to the healthcare policy in their professional engagement regardless of the operation region. ANA further notes that this policy amplifies nursing views and educates the clients and decision-makers in the field (American Nurses Association, 2013). Therefore, nurses must adhere to these healthcare policies as per the code of conduct and the oath of nursing they took when they vowed to uphold the profession's ethics and values. International organizations such as the International Council of Nurses (ICN) hold positions similar to ANA, although slight variations. The ICN statement position is that every human right is interdependent and indivisible. The entity further establishes that individuals' health and well-being can be impaired when their human right is violated in any way.
There are fundamental similarities between ANA and ICN's stated position on nurses' role in ethics and human rights. The defining view is that both entities believe that the nurses are obligated to safeguard, respect, and actively promote their clients' health at all times and in all places. In both positions, the nurses are expected to provide adequate care within the available resources and the nursing profession's ethics. They also hold that patients are entitled to the right information in the most straightforward ways they can comprehend before consenting to any treatment procedures. Further, they acknowledge that coercion or manipulation to obtain consent is unethical and a violation of the human rights and professional codes of conduct. The significant difference between the ANA and ICN positions is the ways and jurisdiction of application. ANA is specifically designed for application within the states in America, while ICN is an international provider and can be applied in America and other countries worldwide.
The statement position by ANA has specific links to the QSEN competencies. One of the competencies is patient-centered and focuses on the inclusion of patients in all the decisions. It also suggests the provision of compassionate care based on the needs and values of the patients. In this context, competence is related to describing the diverse cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds and how these function as sources of patient, family, and community values (Deborah, 2012). The competency aligns with every aspect of human rights. The nurses have to be focused on their patients' care to uphold the human rights provisions—the sharing of information related to the patient's health and the treatment to be administered. The patient needs this information to determine whether they align with their religious values, cultural or ethnic beliefs as outlined in the QSEN competence. Another competence is safety, which focuses on the prevention of harm to the patients. As outlined by ANA, human rights require nurses to assure the patient's safety through adequate care. The position outlines every aspect of this competence, including defining elements within the competency framework that would allow the nurses to have a safety culture.
ANA's position statement can be misinterpreted to imply that it only focuses on the patient's safety. There are more issues attached to this policy, which protects the nurses in some way. For example, the nurses have to work under specific rules and regulations defined by the nursing codes. There are also legal measures that the nurses need to watch out for to prevent them from falling victim to suits and possible license suspension. ANA details that nurses have to observe ethics and the human rights issues related to their patients. When all these are observed, nurses can be sure to stay out of any legal suits or issues that might drag them to the courts or nursing ethics committee (Ssenyonjo & Baderin, 2013). ANA statement position is incorporated into the nursing profession and strategically becomes a culture in the field. The nurses start to operate while observing this position statement from the first day they take the oath. In due course, it becomes a tradition to always adhere...