Ethical Dimensions of Nursing Practice, Essay Example

Organizational Leadership Behavior and Ethical Aspects

The organization’s ethical behavior is influenced by the leadership’s values and principles, according to Zhu (2008). Ethical leadership behaviors create a culture that helps followers create their own morality (Zhu, 2008, p. 63). According to the complexity theory, organizations, and health care units alike, are complex systems, and this means that every stakeholder interacts with each other and influences their values. Davidson (2011) confirms that “nursing practice and health care leadership is driven by a complex system of economics, technology, regulations, and multimodal organizations”. This means that external and internal factors influence the ethical behavior of the unit. Leaders’ moral courage (Murray, 2010) can positively influence the  organization’s behavior.

Current Ethical Issues

In my practice, I have faced several challenges in implementing ethical principles and encouraging team members to engage in ethical approaches. In some cases, the main reason why the instructions and ethical guidelines were not followed was the lack of cultural competence. Treating all patients equally is one of the ethical principles that I embrace in my practice, however, nurses often chose to communicate with patients they had something common with, for obvious reasons, and this resulted in inequality of the quality of care. I implemented new training programs in order to increase the cultural and social awareness and competency of nurses, so they serve all patients the same way, by overcoming cultural boundaries and bias.

Ethical Decision-making

Reviewing the related literature, I found that Murray’s review of the moral courage provides a practical guidance for health care professionals for ethical decision-making. The guidelines described by the author help nursing leaders effectively address moral challenges, such as group thinking, clearly defining the boundary between ethical and unethical behavior, and addressing ethical principles throughout the practice.

References

Davidson, Alice, R. N. (Ed.). (2011). Nursing, caring, and complexity science: For human environment well-being. Springer Publishing Company.

Murray, J.S., (Sept 30, 2010) “Moral Courage in Healthcare: Acting Ethically Even in the Presence of Risk” OJIN:The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 15, No. 3, Manuscript 2. DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No03Man02

Zhu, W. (2008). The effect of ethical leadership on follower moral identity: The mediating role of psychological empowerment. Leadership Review, 8(3), 62-73.