Personal Ethics Essay

Personal ethics comes from inside and are influenced by our everyday life and people around us. The directions we obtain as a child helps to form and begin our awareness of ethics. My upbringing memoirs and experiences instilled a well-built belief in family structure and significance of family in general. I was fortunate to be born and brought up in India in a traditional Roman Catholic family. My father was a doctor and he died of heart attack when I was ten years old. My mother was a registered nurse and I have three older brothers and one younger sister. My mother went to the Middle East to work as a nurse and had to leave us in a boarding school. I missed my mother a lot while I was in the boarding school. That was when I decided what I wanted to do. My only ambition was to become a nurse to be with my mother. I always used to watch my parents caring sick people. My parents constantly reminded me to live in Christian faith. They led us by example all the time, providing precious lessons vital to my development. My parents taught me to treat others as we would want them to treat us. I also learned from my parents that every person is important and we should love and respect them. I strive to live by those set of laws, though it is not always easy. My faith also influences my philosophy. I believe in God and God has a plan and purpose for every one of us. This is the basis of my ethical practices. Each individual cultivates different cultural, spiritual and personal values from their own life experiences which add to their worldview and philosophy of nursing in their practice. To me ethics is my own personal belief structure. Knowing our own personal values is critical to every person. My moral compass in nursing offers highest priority for the wellbeing of patients. My moral courage helps me to speak up, stand up for my personal belief and moral values and bring about change in my work place. The persona l and professional values, my relationship and behaviors to others and my morals help me succeed in my personal and professional life. Our conscience acts as a judge for each one of us. We are responsible for our actions. I believe that God is using me as a tool to care for the needy by providing me the knowledge and ability to promote healing. I also believe in the power of prayer. My patients used to tell me I am always smiling. I believe that it is the gift of God and being a nurse is, a calling not just a career. World view is a personal insight about meaning and reality. It helps the person to interprets, through his or her own eyes, a personal belief about the world. My personal worldview is shaped by my Christian religion, origin as an Indian, circumstances, experiences, and education and philosophy. I accept God as the center of the universe. I believe that I am a good mother for my three kids, faithful wife to my husband and an excellent nurse. I also believe in afterlife. I take pride in my profession. My nursing philosophy comes from my desire to care for others. I consider that nursing care is based on c oncrete evidence that is provided within a respectful framework. I always treat my patients the way I wanted to be treated if I am in that situation. Nurses are honored to interact with patients and families at some of the most vulnerable points in their lives. Being considerate of that vulnerability is important. Being respectful of my health care team is also important, as I consider that each of us play a fundamental role in the care of patients and families that we provide. I believe that God is using me as a tool to care for the needy by providing me the knowledge and ability to promote healing. It is essential for the nurses to understand their own selves so that they are able to take care of their patients better. I believe that spirituality plays an important role in the nursing profession. I think that the care of the soul is the beauty of the art of caring in nursing. The values such as integrity, responsibility, trust, reliability, and honesty are some of the personal values, which will determine how we face the world. Reliability and responsibility are very important to one’s professional and personal life. Culture is something that a person learns from his family and surroundings, and is not inbuilt in him from birth. My upbringing as a Christian in Southern part of India, active participation in church activities and catholic schooling have helped me to value human dignity and assist me to take right decision in my personal and professional life. Awareness of different rules about how their members coexist with each other and interact with each other. Some cultures believe that discussing death, making a living will can invite death to the person who is ill. Looking at the life in different ways should be respected always (Runzheimer & Larsen, 2011). Cultural diversity and differences in personal values can direct our relations with patients, family, and co-workers. Cultural competence is the ability to provide effective care for patients and families and our co- workers who come from different cultures. To understand different cultural beliefs and practices requires flexibility and a respect for others viewpoints . Ethical issues occur in everyday practices. An ethical dilemma is described as a type of situation that involves being in between two correct courses of action that leads the person to choose the right move and still be wrong at the same time (Purtillo, 2011). This can cause a lot of distress as it encompasses both ethical conflict and conduct. The ethical decision what we make should respect the patient and family desires, physician’s belief and concepts on life and death in our own view. Many situations arise in the critical care where nurses and doctors are obligated to make ethical decisions in a short period of time. Few years back I came across a situation in our ICU. A 90 year old woman from nursing home got admitted with history of multiple strokes with weakness on her right side, emphysema and difficulty in swallowing. She was demented also. Her admission diagnosis was aspiration pneumonia. She had two children and her son was the health care proxy who was living in C alifornia and he couldn’t come to visit her mother because of some personal situation. Patient’s daughter who was living locally was taking care of her. The daughter wanted to place the feeding tube and treat for every problem. We respected the daughter’s decision. We started her on antibiotics. We placed the feeding tube and and started feeding her. Day by day her respiratory status started deteriorating. The attending physician contacted the patient’s son over the phone and explained the patient’s condition in detail. Apparently, we found out from him that the patient had a living will that stated she did not want any feeding tube or even antibiotics in a situation where her quality of life was poor. Fortunately patient’s son came with her living will and our hospital ethics committee had a talk with her family especially the daughter. Because the patient’s wishes were clearly stated in the living will, she was made comfortable and transferred her to a private room to allow the family to be with her all the time and she died peacefully after one day. In this situation, the daughter wanted to treat her mother even though she knew about her wishes and she did not tell us anything about the patient’s living will. She was acting unrealistic in this situation. The decision was tough for the daughter in this situation. In my view the physician made the right choice to contact her son that put an end to her sufferings. Nurses can make satisfactory solutions to the different ethical problems through creative and knowledge based approach. Each nurse has the responsibility to optimize the caring response and reduce damage to the patient. .â€Å" Nurses are leaders and vigilant advocates for the delivery of dignified and humane care. Nurses actively participate in assessing and assuring the responsible and appropriate use of intervention in order to minimize unwarranted or unwanted treatment and patient suffering† (American Nurses Association, 2001). The significant impact we make in the lives of our patients and their families in their vulnerable situations and the positive encouragement I get from my nurse manager, co-workers, patients and families keeps me moving in my profession. References American Nurses Association (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.sfcc.edu/files/SFCC NursingStudentHandbook Purtilo, R., & Doherty, R. (2011). Ethical dimensions in the health professions. (5th ed.). P (5-10) St.Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders. Role of the Registered professional nurse. June 8, 2005. Retrieved on June 6, 2012 from http://www.nysna.org/practice/positions/position6.htm Runzheimer, J., & Larsen, L. (2011). Medical ethics for dummies. (p. 113). NJ: WileyPublishing.