Making the Right Choice, Reaction Paper Example

The registered nurse is confronted with two conflicting ethical situations in the case of Lora. Confidentiality and nonmaleficence are equally important ethical principles that must be upheld in health care. In this situation, making the right decision entails weighing which option is more harmful than the other. The situation that Lora is being sexually abused by the stepfather can lead to a high degree of stigma and psychological torture. This can then lead to serious implication including possible suicide (Hall, 1996). The physical abuse from the biological father can also lead to bodily harm that can affect Lora in the rest of her life (Beauchamp & Childress, 1994). Physical abuse sometimes leads to death that can be taken as murder or manslaughter and this situation is not hard to come by. The registered nurse therefore must weigh between life and death in this situation. Maintaining patient information confidentiality in this situation continues to harm Lora since her basic human rights shall continue to be abused (Hutcherson & Willamson, 1999).

The government has the legal obligation of protecting the life of every citizen. The situation that reporting the case based on the principle of nonmaleficence should therefore not be considered in the situation of Lora. The relevant government agencies can easily take care of the fear of keeping Lora from having a place to live with either of her parents as well as making the parents angry and worsen the abuse in the situation that Lora has to stay with either of her parents. The registered nurse should therefore consider advocating for and protecting Lora as the primary option since it can outweigh keeping the information provided confidential. This also absolves the blame of not reporting and upholds the responsibility of the nurse for reporting the abuse.

References

Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of biomedical ethics (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Hall, J. (1996). Nursing ethics and law. Philadelphia: Saunders.

Hutcherson, C., & Willamson, S. (1999). Nursing regulation for the new millennium: The mutual recognition model. Online Journal Of Issues In Nursing.