ETHICS: moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.

Ethics, simply
defined, is a principle that describes what is expected in terms of right , correct and wrong or incorrect in
terms of behavior

Professional ethics is defined as the personal and corporate rules that govern behavior within the
context of a particular profession.

NURSING ETHICS is a branch of applied ethics that concerns itself with activities in the field of nursing.
Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics, such as beneficence, non-maleficence and
respect for autonomy.

Bioethics is a subcategory of ethics. Bio means life and ethics means stadards. Bioethics addresses
ethical concerns like those that occur as the result of advancing science and technological advances.
Some of the most common, current bioethical issues revolve around stem cells, cloning, and genetic
engineering.

PURPOSES OF ETHICS

1. to inform the public about the minimum standards of the profession

2. to help the public understand professional nursing conduct

3. to provide a sign of the profession's commitment to the public

The two major classifications of ethical principles and ethical thought are utilitarianism and
deontology. Deontology is the ethical school of thought that requires that both the means and the end
goal must be moral and ethical; and the utilitarian school of ethical thought states that the end goal
justifies the means even when the means are not moral.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES THAT NURSES MUST ADHERE TO :

Justice is fairness. Nurses must be fair when they distribute care, for example, among the patients in the
group of patients that they are taking care of. Care must be fairly, justly, and equitably distributed among
a group of patients.

Beneficence is doing good and the right thing for the patient.

Nonmaleficence is doing no harm, as stated in the historical Hippocratic Oath. Harm can be intentional
or unintentional.

Accountability is accepting responsibility for one's own actions. Nurses are accountable for their nursing
care and other actions. They must accept all of the professional and personal consequences that can
occur as the result of their actions.

Fidelity is keeping one's promises. The nurse must be faithful and true to their professional promises and
responsibilities by providing high quality, safe care in a competent manner.
Autonomy and patient self-determination are upheld when the nurse accepts the client as a unique
person who has the innate right to have their own opinions, perspectives, values and beliefs. Nurses
encourage patients to make their own decision without any judgments or coercion from the nurse. The
patient has the right to reject or accept all treatments.

4 ELEMENTS OF AUTONOMY

 respect for other's

 ability to determine personal goals
 complete understanding of choices
 freedom to implement the choice/plan

Veracity is being completely truthful with patients; nurses must not withhold the whole truth from
clients even when it may lead to patient distress..

QUIZ

1.Bio means ----------

2. Ethics means----

3.what are the 3 purposes of ethics?

4.

5.

6.what is fidelity

7. Another word for Beneficience

8.what are the two major classifications of ethical principles and ethical thought ?

9.

10.what do you understand by Autonomy?

11-14. What are the four elements of Autonomy

15. differentiate between Deontology and utilitarianism.