Major Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing

In healthcare, there are often higher numbers of ethical dilemmas than in other career fields because of the life-or-death situations that many providers face. A code of ethics in nursing basically states that nurses are responsible for respecting human rights and treating all patients with respect while promoting health, minimizing suffering, and preventing sickness.

Women's Health and Reproduction

For nurses who have strong beliefs about the right to life, women's health and reproductive rights might be a hot-button issue. If you are pro-choice in your personal life, can you provide appropriate care to a pregnant patient who is determined to continue the pregnancy even if it is life-threatening? On the other hand, a patient who is requesting an abortion deserves high-quality care if her nurse is pro-life. Because over 200 million women become pregnant annually, this dilemma could present itself to a nurse at any time.

Religion and Medicine

Some religious beliefs strictly prohibit the use of specific branches of modern medicine. Those who are practicing these religions might report to an emergency room or hospital in need of a blood transfusion, for example, but deny the procedure based on their personal beliefs. A nurse might attempt to appeal to the logical side of the patient or the family by discussing the life-or-death nature of a procedure, but religious beliefs often win the battle. In this case, nurses must learn to respect patients' wishes while providing as much information as possible.

Protection from Distress

Patients who are struggling with mental illness or emotional fragility might have strong reactions to learning information about their medical conditions. Family members or friends of these patients may try to protect them by withholding information. A nurse must learn to balance the patient's right to know with the benefits of respecting the family's wishes for the patient's mental and emotional stability. Knowing what information could potentially cause a strong reaction is also difficult.

Resource Distribution

If you have ever visited a hospital, you probably know that resources are typically stretched very thin. Nurses run between rooms to provide care to patients, but sometimes they have more on their plates than they can handle. In this case, a nurse must prioritize the distribution of resources, but this isn't an easy task. How can you decide who is more important than someone else in need of care? A patient in a vegetative state might seem like the lowest on the list, but he or she is still someone's father, mother, brother, or sister.

Nurses face a number of dilemmas on a daily basis that don't seem to have a right or wrong answer. In the patient's mind, the right answer might be clear and simple, while the caregiver feels that the opposite solution is the only option. Learning to put aside personal beliefs and opinions is important to being a nurse who follows the code of ethics and provides the same high level of care to every single patient who comes through the door, regardless of how much his or her beliefs may differ from the nurses' own.