M11RNSG411

The assignment is adiscussion board response to a student’s post
**Minimum of two scholarly (peer-reviewed)references
**References must be within the last 5-7 years
** This is a master’s program for nursing;answers should be in the context of
nursing
**This is a master’s discussion post and shouldbe written at that level.

**This is not a critiqueof the student’s work.

**This post should buildon, add to, or offer a differing viewpoint of the topic written about in thestudent’s post or initial prompt
** I will attach the grading rubric forreference; please contact me with any questions.

** Do not use thestudent’s sources

The initial prompt that the student responded to (for reference only) is below:

Does your current practice site or clinical agency have an ethics committee? How is the ethics committee consulted; what is its role? How have you approached ethical decision-making in your practice?

The student’s post (Respond to this): RK

Simply stated, ethics is a system of principles that helps us tell right from wrong, good from the bad. Ethics can give real and practical guidance to our lives. In our daily lives to constantly face choices that affect the quality of our lives. We are aware that the choices we make have consequences, both for ourselves and others. Ethical values such as honesty, trustworthiness, and responsibility help guide us along a pathway to deal more effectively with ethical dilemmas by eliminating those behaviors that do not conform to our senses of right and wrong. Our best rational interests, without sacrificing others(Mintz, 2017).

Ethics adds another dimension to help make decisions. To maintain a clear conscience. All doctors want to make sure they have done the right thing. Being an ethical physician is more important than making money or seeing as many patients as possible. Four basic values, or principles, to decide ethical issues are Autonomy, or the patient right to determine their own healthcare; Justice, or distributing the benefits and burdens of care across society; Beneficence, or doing good for the patient; and Nonmalfeasance, or making sure you are not harming the patient(Medscape, 2021). Additionally, values such as truthtelling, transparency, and showing respect for patients and families, listening skills, and people skills are key ethical components.. Ethical standards promote the values that are essential to good communication such as trust and accountability. 

In my place of employment, which is a small independently owned dialysis unit,  we do not have a formal ethics committee. We do have social workers who act as facilitators in decision making for both patients and staff in making difficult decisions in regard to continued dialysis treatments, weighing the pros and cons with both patients and their families; assisting physicians in presenting the most appropriate or preferred course of action when the patient prognosis is poor. Assisting and supporting the patients and their loved ones in making the best-informed decisions is difficult, yet a privilege that we often overlook as such.