Journal-EthicalDilemma
Journal-EthicalDilemma
Althoughnursing career is immensely fulfilling, it has some challenges.Nurses face many ethical dilemmas in their line of duty on a dailybasis. Unfortunately, these problems do not have a satisfactoryresolution. Some of these ethical dilemmas include distribution ofresources, truth telling versus deception, freedom versus control,pro-choice versus pro-life, battle of beliefs, among others. For mycase, my most dread ethical dilemma is the way older nurses arenormally hard and mean to new nurses.
Nowadays,the issue of older nurses harassing the new and trainees nurses hasbecome very common. This matter is more complicated because everynurse has his or her set of ethics that are shaped by personalhistory, race, religion, beliefs, and so on. American NursesAssociation states that these unifying elements are because nurses donot have a clear definition of what is right or wrong (Lo,2013).Abusive treatment such as bullying and harassment of new nurses isentrenched on hospital floors and streets of nursing schools.Sometime back, a new nurse and my friend narrated to me how she wasonce harassed by other older nurses. She made an emergency room visitafter falling and injuring her leg. This made her late to attendpatients in the afternoon session. Despite having a doctor’s noteand wound in the leg, her senior colleague could not accept theexcuse and ended up summoning her. I have also heard of similarstories repeatedly, as well as experienced intimidating treatmentmyself. During my training period, for instance, some senior nursesrefused to help me when I needed their help some would loudlycorrect my mistakes in public making me feel embarrassed.
Inthis course, I have learned that there will always be an ethicaldilemma in the nursing career. The main concern will be how to dealwith it. Some of the ways to combat this ethical dilemma areproviding sufficient education, introduce a zero tolerance policy,and coming up with codes of acceptable conduct. Additionally, leadersand healthcare managers should also use a harmonious approach toprevent any form of intimidation or harassment.
References
Lo,B. (2013). Resolvingethical dilemmas: A guide for clinicians.Philadelphia: W olters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.