Example Of Ethical Issues And Conflict Management In Nursing Essay

Ethical conflicts for nurse managers

The current health care work environment is not always conductive in carrying safe competent and ethical practice in nursing practice. To practice ethically is a key aspect in healthy work environment and in providing better health outcomes of patients. The environments or climates, which are not supportive of ethical practice in health care, may lead to moral distress for the nurses or other health care providers that are influencing in retention of nurses and negatively impact in patient care . The ethical competence of nurses’ is studied from several viewpoints such as ethical decision-making, ethical sensitivity, ethical knowledge, and ethical reflections. The most common strategies to support ethical competence require ethical education, ethical rounds, ethical committee and consultations. Solving of ethical problems in various levels is an essential part in nursing management . These are identified as those related to patients care, staffs, and the organization as a whole. The primary concern is patient care, developing and maintaining quality care is the ideal ethical theme in nursing administration. The most important challenges are disagreement between patient or their families and the health care professionals in treatment decisions. The other important is staff related ethical problem, employee relationship regardless of profession or the status of relationship among health care professionals. In terms of the organization, the ethical conflict in between administrative role and the professional role of nurse managers is also important .

Action Plan

The most important action plan is assessment of the current situation, considering the client’s values, ideals, desires and cultural backgrounds. This also ensures in considering the values of others in the health care team, considering policies and guidelines and relevant legislations . This requires in holding discussions with everybody in clarifying the process. This requires in stating the ethical concerns, issues or dilemmas. This also ensures in identifying broad range of options and their consequences. Recognizing the workload may help in allowing nurses to concentrate more in nursing care and helps to solve problems. This also requires building a nurses’ expense budget.

References

Gaudine, A.P. and Beaton, M.R. (2002). Employed to go against one’s values: Nurse managers’ account of ethical conflict with their organizations. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 34(2), 17-34.
Lowe, G.S. (2004). Healthy workplace strategies: Creating change and achieving results. Prepared for the Workplace Health Strategies Bureau, Health Canada. Kelowna, BC: The Graham Lowe Group.
Ovretveit, J. (2008). A team quality improvement sequence for complex problems (TQIS). Quality in Health Care, 8(4), 239-246.