Ethical Considerations
Nurses are continuously regarded as one of the most trusted professions with high ratings in both ethics and honesty (Reinhart, 2020). For the last 18 years, the public has viewed nurses as being more ethical and honest than clergy, medical doctors, or even engineers (Gallup, 2020). Yet conflicts frequently arise in the workplace that can result in behaviors that are considered to be viewed as incivility within the nursing profession thus jeopardizing the ethical standing of nurses. The behaviors labeled as incivility in nursing can lead to increased turnover, decreased patient quality of care, unsafe work environments, and even nurse burn out (Taylor, 2016). Education about incivility in nursing is an ethical issue because it will affect everyone; employees, employers, and members of the public seeking medical care can all fall victim to the effects of these behaviors.
Code of Ethics
The American Nurses Association (ANA) has laid out a code of ethics in which all nurses need to abide by. The American Nurses Associations Code of Ethics addresses nurse to nurse relationships and professional development in three of the provisions:
“Provision 5: The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety, preserve wholeness of character and integrity, maintain competence, and continue personal and professional growth.
Provision 6: The nurse, through individual and collective effort, establishes, maintains, and improves the ethical environment of the work setting and conditions of employment that are conducive to safe, quality health care.
Provision 9: The profession of nursing, collectively through its professional organizations, must articulate nursing values, maintain the integrity of the profession, and integrate principles of social justice into nursing and health policy”. (American Nurses Association, 2015, p. v)
The provisions outlined by the ANA expresses that nurses need to treat themselves and also their coworkers with respect and professionalism to further advance the profession of nursing (American Nurses Association, 2015). Even with these provisions in place and workplace educational programs, nurses and other healthcare professionals are still subject to negative interactions in the workplace.
Ethics within health care can help increase patient satisfaction and trust (Haddad & Geiger, 2020). Possessing strong ethics helps the nurse recognize dilemmas within nursing, helps the nurse have good judgments skills, and in the end helps the nurse make decisions based on an ethical framework (Haddad & Geiger, 2020) Exploring the different approaches to ethics, I have decided to focus on the rights approach, the common good approach, and the virtue approach. I feel these three approaches align with the work I was able to complete for my project.
The Rights Approach
The rights approach looks to see if all of the rights of involved stakeholders are respected and given equal input in the decision-making process. I am a firm believer that every human being has a right to choose how they act and react to situations. A nurse can choose how he or she acts and reacts to the actions of others. I feel the rights approach was addressed within the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics and within my research, in that, a nurse has the same duties to self as they do to others (American Nurses Association, 2015). With the rights approach the nurse experiencing incivility is not being respected, by reducing incivility it is giving this nurse their voice back and allowing them to choose and be a decision-maker.
The Common Good Approach
The common good approach seeks to benefit the community as a whole. I feel the education to combat incivility within nursing will benefit various groups of people and in the long run the entire community. Reducing incivility in nursing will further boost the nursing profession in the eyes of the community and lead to increased patient satisfaction. By increasing the confidence of nurses within the community I hope it would help build relationships and trust within the community. Next, the nurse, in helping the nurse by decreasing these behaviors will lead to job retention, less patient errors, and decreased stress in the workplace. Finally, to the employer in reducing incivility will result in less turnover and fewer costs to the organization. It will also create a more positive working environment for all employees within the organization.
The Virtue Approach
Looking at the virtue approach, which seeks to explore ethics that affect me as a nurse, I have learned the importance of positive behaviors within the workplace. I have learned to be an observer as well as a listener. I will embody the positive behaviors to try to change the culture of the unit I work on as a nurse. As a nurse when I see the negative behaviors occurring, I know to step back to observe, listen, and act. I feel it is important to act when you experience or witness these behaviors. Standing up will be difficult but after my research, I now fully understand the importance of standing up when I see these behaviors occur.
Conclusion
Overall, I feel satisfied with the ethical direction my project has taken. I feel at this time the project has mostly impacted myself and my behaviors. I did change the direction of the project due to COVID-19 and was unable to explore the idea of in-person interviews and educational events but I feel that I have created a good online educational resource that showcases my research. The social change I hope for is that one person will hear my message and it will change the trajectory of their behaviors and in turn, that person may inspire another and hopefully this cycle will repeat indefinitely. As I complete the nursing program and transition to the role of a new graduate nurse, I will embody these positive behaviors and in turn, continue my research when I continue to my graduate education.
References
American Nurses Association, (2015). Code of Ethics for Nurses, with Interpretive Statements, Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association, Nursebooks.org, publishers.
Haddad L.M., Geiger R.A., Nursing Ethical Considerations, (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526054/
Reinhart, R. (2020). Nurses Continue to Rate Highest in Honesty, Ethics. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/274673/nurses-continue-rate-highest-honesty-ethics.aspx
Taylor, R. (2016). Nurses' Perceptions of Horizontal Violence. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2333393616641002