Nursing Ethics CEUS
When you sit down to plan your CEU courses or to fill in last-minute requirements, consider taking courses in ethics. Ethical issues are a foundation for everything nurses do and are important parts of job evaluations and licensing requirements. Every nurse needs a solid grounding in ethics, which would include instruction in how to think ethically so you can make good decisions and in practical application—how to apply principles of ethical reasoning to situations you encounter in your practice.
Nursing Ethical Guidelines
Your training, both in school and on the job, undoubtedly included written information on ethics in nursing. Professional associations and employers often publish their own code of ethics to which you are expected to adhere.
For example, provision 1 of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses states, “The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and uniqueness of every individual, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems.”
The Preamble to the Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses, by the Canadian Nurses Association, states, “This code of ethics for registered nurses is a statement of the ethical commitments of nurses to those they serve. It has been developed by nurses for nurses and sets forth the ethical standards by which nurses are to conduct their nursing practice.”
The energy invested by professional associations, educational programs, state licensing boards, and employers in defining and disseminating their ethics statements is a testament to the issue’s importance. Your state or employer may even require CEUs in ethics, but even if they do not, it’s important to stay current.
Old Ethical Issues and New Ethical Issues
Ethics courses can be found to satisfy virtually any educational need, whether you’re an RN, LPN, or CNA, and cover topics ranging from broad approaches to ethical questions to specific situations that present ethical challenges. Some issues have been with nursing for as long as the profession itself has been around. For instance, protecting their patients’ personal dignity against institutional or societal interests has long been a struggle for nurses, as has the sometimes gray areas surrounding informed consent. Many courses are available to assist nurses in general-purpose ethical approaches; these courses include theoretical grounding in ethics, case studies, practical application, exercises and more.
Some ethical issues are more specific and are newer to the field of nursing. Such issues grow out of our cultural and social milieu and, often, out of the business centric nature of today’s healthcare industry. Consider the following examples of relatively recent social and industrial changes that present ethical challenges:
The problem of budget-driven understaffing of nurses
The use of ever-advancing technologies as extraordinary life-sustaining measures
Quality of care vs. insurance-allowed treatment
Gifts, junkets, and kickbacks from drug companies
Some new ethical issues have to do with the nursing shortage facing the profession all over the world. For instance, what are the ethical implications of nursing schools limiting their enrollments in the face of a looming healthcare crisis? Using the drawing power of higher salaries, institutions in the U.S. may be able to recruit nurses from foreign countries. But should they? The nursing shortage is worldwide, and the recruits’ home countries undoubtedly need skilled nurses as much as the U.S. does. Supervising nurses daily face challenges in simply staffing each shift that can have ethical implications: how much overtime can you ethically expect a nurse to work, even if you’re short on staff? The shortage is having measurable impact on the quality of care patients receive and on the job satisfaction and moral distress nurses experience.
CEUS Education Helps
Nurses report receiving less education in ethics than they would have liked during their formal training and state that CEUs in ethics are important to their continuing education plans. Moreover, they also would prefer courses on particular topics rather than general ethics guidelines. Given the current ethical challenges nurses face, courses that address the complicated web of business, personal, and legal demands in today’s nursing practice would likely be the most helpful for you. Look for courses that will help you with the ethical considerations in:
Career management
Nurse’s role in protecting patient rights
Informed consent and DNR
Interpreting and understanding written ethical guidelines
Ethics touch every aspect of a nurse’s practice, and the nature of ethical dilemmas guarantees that solutions are rarely clear or predetermined. Sharpen your ability to address these issues intelligently and responsibly with a regular dose of ethics CEUs.