Pediatric Ethical Dilemma
Ethics is considered as the study of rational reasoning, yet people may have a different perception of ethical behavior depending on a given circumstance. In McCarthy and Gastmans (2015) article entitled Moral Distress, ethics are defined as the structure of codes and standards that are commonly observed by a group of people. While these systems are not part of the legal structure, they nevertheless set the norm in determining right from wrong in a given situation. In the nursing practice, the ethical concept refers to the delivery of correct and individualized care which are helpful in achieving quality patient care outcome. This involves the virtue ethics, which emphasizes the character, rather than the rules and principles, based on the notion that virtuous character can have a great impact in resolving moral dilemmas (Butts, n.p). However, the diverse formal and informal ethical principles laid down by the American Nursing Association resulted in the confusion among nursing practitioners in the United States. That is, nurses have to deal with different ethical predicaments because there are instances when they have to choose to either uphold their own values or abide by the given nursing guidelines. This paper aims to discuss a clinical setting where a nurse encounter a pediatric ethical dilemma.
In the majority of cases, children have a minimal capacity to decide about their medical condition, thus their parents generally take the responsibility about the treatment of their children. However, in instances when the parents or the guardian is not available to give the needed consent or decision, the social workers have the responsibility to make the decisions on behalf of the children, especially so in cases of emergencies (McCarthy and Gastmans, 2015). The key is to ensure that the child received the needed treatment, without compromising his safety and well being.
However, there are instances when nurses have to deal with conflicting situations in their pediatric practice. For some reason, there are parents who express disagreement about the type of vaccines and medical treatment given to their child. This is the case for some religious sects that refuse vaccination and other forms of what they consider as intrusive treatment such as blood transfusion. There are many cases when nurses encounter parents who claimed that they have never allowed their child to be immunized (McCarthy and Gastmans, 2015).
Based on a nurses’ education, training and experience as clinical professionals, nurses are knowledgeable and are considered as in the best position to know what is best for the patient. However, in instances when the patient or their guardian refuse the treatment, the nurse must be aware that the right of the patient usually undermines the provision of medical literature. In line with this, the nurse is required to be alert and be wary whether the child’s health is severely threatened, of which he is required to seek the attention of higher authority to further investigate the issue.
In a provision issued by the American Nursing Association (ANA), its code of ethics pointed out that the nurse’ main concern the patient’s welfare. In any given situation, such as the case where parents refuse the administration of needed treatment and immunization of their child, the nurse remains to consider all means to be able to help the pediatric patient. Further, in the ANA code of ethics, the nurse must ensure the health, safety, and rights of the patient (McCarthy and Gastmans, 2015). In line with this responsibility, the nurse has to appropriately act and ensure that are taken into consideration to make up for the child’s lack of vaccination. The nurse must decide and take responsibility to seek the needed help for the pediatric patient. In addition to her ethical responsibility to the patient, the nurse must also see to it that she keeps herself fit and healthy in order not to subject herself into ethical or clinical threats.
References
Butts, J. (n.d.). Ethics in professional nursing practice. In Professional codes of ethics in nursing. Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
McCarthy, J., & Gastmans, C. (2015). Moral distress A review of the argument-based nursing ethics literature. Nursing ethics, 22(1), 131-152.
