Taking a Stand (Leadership) In nursing, one is bound to encounter a wide range of moral and ethical challenges. This is more so the case given that as nurses, we often have to work with various kinds of people, often during challenging moments in their lives. All these people have personal expectations and demands. Trying to balance these demands and harmonize the various needs of those we come across could be a challenge. This is more so the case given that we also have to take into consideration the interests of other stakeholders in the entire care-giving equation. In the final analysis, this means that from time to time, we encounter situations that call upon us to reconcile our nursing profession duties and obligations with our personal or individual values. It should be noted that when it comes to navigating the ethical and moral minefield, the relevance of the nursing code of ethics cannot be overstated. In addition to helping us address moral dilemmas deep within ourselves, the nursing code of ethics comes in handy in seeking to avert malpractice litigation or disciplinary issues. It is important to note that although not all moral and ethical challenges can be solved or sorted out by way of making references to the nursing code of ethics, familiarizing oneself with the same does indeed make things easier towards this end. According to Smith, Carpenter, and Fitzpatrick (2015), ethical decision making capabilities develop over time. Our hope, therefore, also lays in constant exposure to circumstances or situations that challenge us from an ethical or moral point of view. This text examines a moral dilemma encountered by the author and analyses the legal as well as ethical and moral implications the dilemma posed. The role of the author as a moral agent in the entire situation, and the...
Some of these were easier to solve upon reflection, while others posed a real challenge. The most challenging, and perhaps the most memorable ethical/moral dilemma I have faced in recent times involved two of my colleagues at work. In addition to sheer incompetence, the said peers were often extremely rude to patients and their visitors, and often neglected basic duties or roles of care. While one was a habitual drunk and would often show up for his shifts reeking of alcohol, the other was a loner who appeared to have stress and anxiety issues. From time to time, they both reported for shifts late and were dismissive of simple requests of patients. The loner colleague was particularly notorious for being rude to relatives and friends of patents. She appeared to deem enquiries on the progress of patients as a bother of some sort and would be quite dismissive in her responses. In one particular instance, the drunk colleague misread an 800 mg phenytoin IV as 1800 mg. It was through sheer luck that he was stopped by a colleague moments before proceeding with administration of the same. It is important to note that in this case, the said phenytoin was only available in 250 mg/1 mL vials. In that regard therefore, what my colleague ought to have had in the IV bag was an equivalent of 3.2 mL which would have taken a total of four vials. Had my colleague proceeded with the administration, the patient would have most likely died of an overdose. This incident was not reported.References
Burman, M.E. & Dunphy, L.M. (2011). Reporting Colleague Misconduct in Advanced Practice Nursing. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 1(4), 26-31.
Mansbach, A., Kushnir, T., Ziedenberg, H. & Bachner, Y.G. (2014). Reporting Misconduct of a Coworker to Protect a Patient: A Comparison between Experienced Nurses and Nursing Students. The Scientific World Journal, 4(8), 84-97.
Maurits, E.M., Veer, A.J., Groenewegem, P.P. & Francke, A.L. (2016). Dealing with Professional Misconduct by Colleagues in Home Care: A Nationwide Survey among Nursing Staff. BMC Nursing, 15(9), 59-68.
Smith, M.J., Carpenter, R. & Fitzpatrick, J.J. (Eds.). (2015). Encyclopedia of Nursing Education. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Nursing The greatest challenges facing nursing leadership and the profession as a whole include, but are not limited to, "highly political environments, budget reductions, changing reimbursement patterns, staffing shortages, and rapidly evolving technological advances," (Schmidt, 2006, p. 34). In addition to these environmental and organizational challenges, nurses and nurse leaders contend with issues related to communications, public relations, and personal psychological barriers to greatness. Nurses are endowed with more formal and
Nursing, Leadership and Management Case Analysis Source of motivation The nursing career is a challenging one and needs a lot of motivation and determination in order for one to continue in the quest to offer the service to those who need it and stay motivated and even motivate others. There are varied sources of my motivation in the nursing field. The most important is the intrinsic motivation source. It is described as
How do you think that leadership would be different for a person who leads only persons between 18 and 35 years of age compared with a person whose followers are mostly over the age of 40? What strategies would you recommend for a person who becomes the leader of a mixed group? There are significant differences between employees from various age groups in nursing as well as more generally within
Nursing Leadership The task that awaits a newly hired nurse unit manager in this particular care facility is going to be challenging. With nurses complaining out loud about assignments, and with nurses calling in sick, being late to work and not being productive, the new unit manager has her hands full. This paper uses scholarly literature to propose steps to be taken to get the care facility back to operating the
Nursing Leadership Theories NURSING LEADERSHIP: COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTS & THEORIES The work of Cherie and Gebrekida (2005) report that there is both formal and informal leadership in that managers are formally "delegated authority, including the power to reward or punish. A manager is expected to perform functions such as planning, organizing, directing (leading) and controlling (evaluating)." On the other hand, informal leaders are "not always managers performing those functions required
Nursing Leadership As nursing has moved toward professionalization, roles for nurses in leadership positions have been created. Historically, the roles of charge nurse, nurse manager, nurse educator, and nurse leader, have existed to coordinate and improve care delivery. In recent times, advanced practice nursing education has been introduced in order to formalize and improve performance of this role, in order to ensure evidence-based practice and improve patient care outcomes. While the
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now