Moral Issues In Nursing

In the following essay I will explore a moral problem within today 's society. The moral problem that I will be addressing is restraints used in care settings specifically in residential care homes towards elderly persons. The reason I chose this area is because it is a growing issue within today 's society with more and more cases being reported. I also have seen restraints being used in past work environments.

"Ethics is the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong".
‘It deals with such questions at all levels. Its subject consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision making. Its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong’.

Nurses and care staff are not only responsible for their patients but also other employees, the public and the entire profession. Therefore it is important that they have a strong understanding of various ethical, legal and professional issues that they may be faced with throughout their career. There are three primary duties of care amongst several others, these are:
· The duty of autonomy
· Confidentiality
· Duty of care to all patients
These duties are accompanied by the principles of benefince (meaning doing good and acting in patients’ best interests) and non-maleficence (meaning to avoid harm).
(UK Essays, 2015)
Ethics in nursing focuses on the concept that nursing is collaborative, therefore patients have a basic right to bodily autonomy whenever possible, including a human rights component. The need for allowing informed consent underlies the ethical notion of autonomy, which outlines the minimum standard of behaviour accepted by the community.
(UK Essays,

From the perspective of a person within the health sector, autonomy may and may not be practical for the purposes of preventing liability from litigation and avoiding ethical criticism, especially when it 's measured against the patients’ best interests. In certain circumstances such as cases where patients don 't have the decision-making capacity, then nurses may treat the patient without consent. This type of situation is usually grounded on the principle of necessity. When professionals working within the health sector act under necessity, they must be able to prove that they did no more then what was necessary and in the best interests of the patient. This is a common problem in today 's nursing homes as many residents are not of sound mind and are unable to make decisions that affect them. A lot of residents who don 't have the decision-making capacity may also have no family members and are now 'ward of courts’. This normally means that a nurse working in the nursing home is in charge of making medical decisions relating to that specific resident. For this reason legal and ethical issues are common in health care industries, mainly within nursing practices, where nurses have daily individual contact with patients. Ethical issues are wide-ranging from organ donation, assisted suicide, withholding treatment in end of life care, or more