Nursing Education, Term Paper Example

Ethical Requirements of the Nursing Profession and the Impact on Nursing Education

Introduction

The nursing education is one of the most salient forms of education that a country needs to encourage and equip the students. Nursing is all about life, and when a country wants to see its citizens leading a virtuous life, and then they have no option but to train more nurses that will have high qualifications so that they bring a positive impact in the society once they join the outside job market away from the books. The training of the nurses is not an easy task: it is not just all about knowing what drugs are supposed to be given to a patient with some defined symptoms. Rather, it entails a variety of requirements that one has to hold on to in order to qualify as a trustworthy and reliable nursing professional. One of the important aspects that the students of nursing need to be taught is the ethical standards of the nursing profession. These ethical requirements are extremely valuable because they significantly influence the efficiency and the success of a specific medical practitioner while in the field of medicine and nursing.

Therefore, it is noteworthy for one to understand the ethical requirements of the nursing profession clearly during the provision of the nursing education. These ethical requirements of the nursing profession also influence the way the education and teaching are provided to the students. This is because the ethical knowledge is normally passed to the students over a long period. The curriculum, therefore, should be devised in a manner that the ethics guidelines will be passed to the students over a long period. This study analyses analyse the ethical requirements necessary in the field of nursing and their effect on a classroom setting.

Ethical requirements of the nursing profession

The nursing profession has many ethical requirements that students need to be taught over a long period. This will be particularly beneficial in the career as they provide services to the public once they are through with their studies. Some of the ethical requirements of the nursing students apply to their student life while they are studying while others are supremely valuable during their service to the public. All of them are going to be clearly highlighted in the paper.

One of the basic and fundamental ethical requirements of the nursing student is readiness and willingness to get the best nursing education as they go to handle the public. This calls for students to be willing and to put in the most effort to ensure that they get exceptionally high academic qualifications while in college. This is particularly beneficial because the knowledge they get will be helpful in handling the patients in the health facilities that they will be working (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2002). Anyone who has gone through the nursing education but has not acquired enough education is unqualified to practice. This is because dealing with human life requires one make all the decisions accurately based on relevant and approved knowledge.

The other pertinent code of ethics for the nursing students is the aspect of personal integrity especially the one relating to honesty. Honesty is a broad aspect that both applies to the life of a student and even during the time one will be practising as a medical officer. The first aspect of honesty entails the student not at any time providing literature that is plagiarized or from another person to the lecturer without proper citation. This is extremely serious because if the student will be allowed to give information that does not belong to him, he will not get the required form of education. The other form of honesty is applied in handling classwork and assignment. No student is allowed to sit an exam on behalf of another person or allow somebody to do an exam on his behalf. In addition, a student should not use unauthorized material during testing sessions. The aspect of sabotage is also an extremely valuable form of honesty that students need to abide by. A student should not destroy any intellectual property of another person in college or outside college as this will be a bridge of the code of ethics. The last aspect of honesty is the falsification of the records belonging to patients in order to give a certain form of impression or to acquire some material gain from the same (Godkin & Markwell, 2003). This is particularly valuable, and students need to be taught on the dangers of such practices and be told to abstain from such a form of practice.

A nursing student needs to be a responsible person and one who is ready and willing to take up all the responsibilities that entail taking care of the patients in the society, at the health centres and hospitals. Taking care of patients is not an easy task. It entails being outgoing and having a heart to serve the needy, sick people without necessarily expecting a lot of returns from the act. Therefore, this calls that being responsible is an indispensable code of conduct for the medical practitioners. The responsibility includes both personal and interpersonal responsibility where one has to display high personal responsibility and corporate responsibility.

The other pertinent code of ethics for the medical students is the aspect of non-discrimination. Discrimination refers to the looking down upon of somebody on the basis of race, sex, age, height, skin colour, tribe, religion or even marital status (Dutton et al, 2007). All students studying nursing need to be taught on the negative effects that come with such form of discrimination. They should learn to avoid such forms of discrimination fully because they negatively affect the deliverance of medical services to the disadvantaged people of the society.

It is also among the code of conduct of the nurses that at a time when there is a disagreement between the patient and the nurse, the requirements of the patient are principal, and the nurse needs to sacrifice is or her needs on behalf of the patient. This is called service for the people. Going beyond their comfort zones in order to provide courteous and efficient care to patients is the most salient aspect in nursing.

Confidentiality is also an indispensable ethical aspect for the nurses. Some information concerning a patient that needs to be kept confident should be kept with the highest level of confidence. Any discussions concerning the status of the patients should never be done at a place that would undermine this fundamental right of the patient (American Nurses Association, 2006).

There should be no photocopying or scanning of files written information concerning the patients for other personal use outside the health institution. It is unethical for nurses to disclose any medical information required for the well-being of a certain patient. This involves sharing of the medical information to patient, the other nurses and doctors in order to better the services that are provided to patients in the health facility (Storch et al, 2004). The nurse should also never engage in any misconduct with the patient whether amid or with no the acquiescence of the patient as this is against the code of ethic for the nursing practitioners.

Effect of the ethical requirements to education

As highlighted above, the ethical requirements for nursing students and practitioners are extremely strict for nurses in the field need to follow. For one to be a virtuous and qualified nurse, they need to meet these standards fully. Therefore, this calls for extremely strict training provisions for students so that they can cultivate the priceless ethical aspects into their daily activities.

It is particularly crucial for the learning institutions to come up with relevant codes of conducts. Students need to adhere to the codes during their training period in order to cultivate the highlighted ethical aspects in their lives. The codes of conduct for the colleges need to be fully adhered to; any student found to be going against them has to face the college rules of law so that deleterious character should not be transferred to the field while handling the patients. Some of the important codes of conduct are outlined below.

A student should not be involved in any form of forgery or alteration of any information that is being used within the university. A student should not disrupt or interfere with any form of information or teaching on the university especially research. Any form of physical abuse of any fellow student or teacher should be prohibited. Unauthorized entry into any premises within the university should be a serious offence by the student. In addition, there illegal ownership of firearms and alcoholic beverages should be prohibited because it will instil unacceptable ethical habits in the students. Theft or any form of attempted theft should be punished severely. Any indecent behaviour and hooliganism need to be also punished severely. If these and any other rules are set by the faculties and the university management so that they be followed by the students, the students will be taught in a culture that will allow them cultivate some of the crucial nursing ethical practices that they need to posses. This will help in the release of fully qualified and efficient medical practitioners in to the field of medicine and nursing that will be able to serve the public whole heartedly.

Conclusion

The behaviour of any person grows over a long period. Any person behaves differently depending on the way of life they have been leading. A person who is left to behave badly in class will equally behave badly while in the field practising his career. Therefore, if we need to have efficient and ethical, medical practitioners, we need to have ethical students in classes. Therefore, the faculties and schools that are training nurses need to ensure that they have students that are outstanding, not only in scholastic presentation, but also in the ethical behaviour. Through this, the service delivery to the patients will be significantly improved.

References

American Nurses Association. (2006). Position Statement: Risk And Responsibility In Providing Nursing Care. Washington, DC

Burkhardt, M. A., & Nathaniel, A. K. (2002). Ethics & Issues in Contemporary Nursing (second Ed.). Toronto: Delmar Publishers.

Dutton, J., Lilius, J., & Kanov, J. (2007). The Transformative Potential of Compassion at Work. In S. K. Piderit, R. E. Fry, & D. L. Cooperrider (Eds.), Handbook Of Transformative Cooperation: New Designs And Dynamics. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

Godkin, D., & Markwell, H. (2003). The Duty to Care of Healthcare Professionals: Ethical Issues and Guidelines for Policy Development. Toronto: Submission to the SARS Expert Panel Secretariat.

Storch, J., Rodney, P., & Starzomski, R. (2004). Toward A Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for   Leadership and Practice. Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall.