Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership in Nursing

Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership in Nursing
Name
Institution
Abstract
Nurses are challenged by the moral and ethical considerations that guide their profession. While as moral and ethical leaders nurses should be committed to cultural values and societal norms, they should also comply with regulations and rules that govern their professional conduct. In this case, ethical leaders are the ones who adhere to ethical code of conduct and make moral decisions. The aim is protect the rights of the patients as well as the interests of the entire society. This essay will examine the constructs of ethics, moral, and legal standards, analyze a dilemma, and apply my leadership style in handling the dilemma.
Introduction
Effective leadership in nursing is defined based on ethical and moral standards. These are personal beliefs and moral values that set the ground for ethical leadership. Usually, leadership should portray institutional and social beliefs and aspirations. Apart from the societal rules that guide leadership, nurses should also be aware of the ethical code of conduct. Without ethics and morals in nursing leadership, one would be argued to be practicing poor leadership. It is argued that through ethical leadership, the nurse leader will respect and recognize/ appreciate the work of other nurses while advocating for the rights of all patients. An ethical leader also encourages the same type of conduct on all other nurses and this is good for improving patient outcomes. The success of a nurse leader is therefore based on ethics, morals, and legal standards.
Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership
The nursing profession expects that nurses adhere to ethical, legal, and moral obligations in daily operations. It is expected in every action or decision a nurse makes, it is justifiable in terms of ethics, morals, and legal standards. According to Cianci, Hannah, Roberts, and Tsakumis (2014), ethics can be defined as the accepted codes of behavior and conduct in a society that should be followed by individuals under all circumstances. Moral obligations are defined by Hogg, Van Knippernberg and Rast (2012) as personal traits, motivations, and beliefs of individuals to help in undertaking one’s duties. As explained by Leach and McFarland (2014), moral motivations and beliefs are the guiding standards in enhancing one’s level of operations. Lastly, legal standards are the regulations and laws set up by the state or federal governmental bodies/ agencies to guide nurses in their profession. These are usually in terms of licensures, accreditation, and scope of practice to ensure that only competent and endorsed nurses practice within their scope.
Experienced Dilemma
When working as an intern in a community hospital, I interacted with a number of patients. I as touched by many of them as they informed them of their chronic medical conditions thus sobbing uncontrollably. It was also hard when dealing with family members who had lost a loved one after investing so much in their treatment. Irrespective of the numerous encounters I had, I will not forget a case of an elderly male patient; 65 years old who came to the facility unaccompanied because he was worried with his rate of forgetfulness, disorientation, and difficult working on tasks. While the patient thought that these symptoms were normal with his aging, it was unfortunate that the carried out tests pointed to dementia. Since he was alone, he persuaded all the parties involved in the diagnosis process including myself to not disclose his illnesses to anyone including his family members. His argument was that he did not want to worry them or find him a bother now that he was to be dependent on others.
2 weeks later, the patient was brought back to the community healthcare facility in the company of his wife and son. The two were worried that he was becoming more disorganized and lost his way home three times. Even though the patient was convincing them that nothing was wrong with him, only that he woke on the wrong side of the bed, they were certain that he needed medical checkup. Since I knew his medical condition, there was no need of further tests. However, the ethical dilemma was how to handle the situation. The family members needed to be informed of the diagnosis while the patient had communicated his wish of having his medical condition remain a secret.
Legally, nurses are prohibited from sharing patient health conditions with third parties without their consent. As explained by HIPAA in security and privacy rules, the health information of a patient s...