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Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that concerns itself with activities in the field of nursing. Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics, such as beneficence, non-maleficence, and respect for autonomy. It can be distinguished by its emphasis on relationships, human dignity and collaborative care.
Beneficence is a concept in research ethics that states that researchers should have the welfare of the research participant as a goal of any clinical trial or other research study. The antonym of this term, maleficence , describes a practice that opposes the welfare of any research participant.
The Belmont Report summarizes ethical principles and guidelines for human subject research. Three core principles are identified: respect for persons, Beneficence, and Justice. The three primary areas of application were stated as informed consent, assessment of risks and benefits, and selection of human subjects in research.
So the principle of non-maleficence is not absolute, and balances against the principle of beneficence (doing good), as the effects of the two principles together often give rise to a double effect (further described in next section). Even basic actions like taking a blood sample or an injection of a drug cause harm to the patient's body.
Principlism has evolved into a practical approach for ethical decision-making that focuses on the common-ground moral principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. The practicality of this approach is that principlism can be derived from, is consistent with, or at the very least is not in conflict with a multitude of ethical ...
Case 1: A newborn with probably fatal birth defects that is a ward of the state is in the Neonatal ICU and nurses must decide what level of care represents beneficence, or "doing good." Case 2: The staff in a nursing home must decide between respecting a patient's autonomy and the need to restrain her to prevent injury.
Like medical ethics, nursing ethics is very narrow in its focus, especially when compared to the expansive field of bioethics. For the most part, "nursing ethics can be defined as having a two-pronged meaning," whereby it is "the examination of all kinds of ethical and bioethical issues from the perspective of nursing theory and practice."
The Nightingale Pledge is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession in the United States, and it is not used outside the US. It included a vow to "abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous" and to "zealously seek to nurse those who are ill wherever they may be and whenever they are in need."