Critical Thinking for Nurses: Reflective Journal Two
George Brown College
NURS 9184
October 14, 2014
Critical Thinking for Nurses: Reflective Journal Two What are the roles of the code of ethics for nurses, the standards of practice, and the laws in making nursing decisions? Since the inception of morality from the era of the great thinkers like Plato, Socrates, and other celebrated philosophers of the time; and presently to the highest seat occupied by a public trustee; to the office of the integrity commissioner of Ontario, Lynn Morrison; down to institutions, companies, and even to the garbage guy who would religiously pick the scattered debris of trashes in the road, ethics, with its ''all-embracing nature" according to Singer (2014), governs it all. Upon delving into various sources concerning morality and ethics, I have a first hand account that ethics is as debatable as it has ever been. Ethicists and ethical theories often provide conflicting answers to the same moral problems (Geirsson & Holmgren, 2010). This could be a viable reason as to why nurses are left to themselves when ethical dilemmas occur that even the regulatory body for nurses (where public interest is the 'only' thing that matters, in my opinion) does not offer "solutions" (College of Nurses of Ontario, Practice Standard: Ethics, 2009, p. 3). A rather stark contrast, under the premise of 'public first', or it may seem an irrefutable proof that "there are no objective or universal values" (Geirsson & Holmgren, 2010, p. 1). Consequently, we are now left with questions as to why we need ethics in our standards of practice, in legislations that influence nursing decisions, and to individual nurses' practice. According to Canadian Nurses Association (2008), the code of ethics for nurses serves as the foundation for ethical practice. This can be reflected by the College's practice standards; in example, the practice standard statement accountability, whereby nurses are solely responsible for his/her own actions and the consequences of those actions. Also, the code of ethics serves as a tool for self-evaluation. One may reflect his/her actions in a given scenario and ask himself, 'did I provide a safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care'? With regard to legislations, ethics serves as a guide to which nurses can advocate to change a law or policy that do not conform to ethical practice (CNA, 2008). The highly sensitive issue of the approval of Quebec's right-to-die legislation or the loathsome (in my opinion) "Bill 52", can be subjected to changes, if nurses would unite and lobby the governing body. However, this will again bring us back to the notion that "no universal values exist", as previously stressed out. What is considered normal for some, might be regarded as 'heinous' to many (Marino, 2010). In my three-year experience as a nurse, I have never been exposed to "real-time" nursing experience, or if I ever was, it was just a limited one. Years back, when I was a student nurse, I remember giving medication to a certain client that had already taken the drug, and I did not do anything about it, nor did I feel that there were reasons to be concerned about. It was just a generic antibiotic anyway, I thought. There was also a time when I was having my related learning experience, I had given a 'made-up' vital sign specifically blood pressure. I reasoned, " I have too many patients assigned under my care that when I finished the last one, it