it can be used in every field of life

1. Presented by
Sehrish Naz

2. ETHICS

3. Objectives
 Introduction to ethics
 Ethical Issues
 Ethical issues in health care
 Principle and rules of ethics

4. Introduction to ethics
 ..some of this judgement is about having a strong sense of what is
right or wrong
 ..having a strong sense of what we should be doing and shouldn’t be
doing as nurses
 ..having a strong sense of what our priorities ought to be

5. What is an ‘ethical issue’?
 When you have to judge what is right or wrong
 Choosing between options
 Deciding whether to do something or do nothing
 Should I or shouldn’t I?
 Weighing up the potential impact of your decisions or actions

6. Ethical issues in health
care
 We usually think of the ‘big’ issues
e.g. definition of life, what is a person, quality of life, prolonging life,
ending life, human rights.
 But day to day ethical issues can involve:
 Respecting people
 Treating people with dignity
 Treating people fairly
 Supporting patient’s choices

7. Another source of ideas in
health care ethics
 Principles of Biomedical Ethics (Beauchamp
and Childress, 2001)
They discuss:
 4 key principles
 supplemented by 4 rules

8. 4 Key Ethical Principles
 Autonomy
 Beneficence
 Non malficence
 Justice

9. Autonomy
 Respect a person’s right to make their own decisions
 Teach people to be able to make their own choices
 Support people in their individual choices
 Do not force or coerce people to do things
 ‘Informed Consent’ is an important outcome of this principle

10. Beneficence (to do good)
 Our actions must aim to ‘benefit’ people – health, welfare, comfort, well-
being, improve a person’s potential, improve quality of life
 ‘Benefit’ should be defined by the person themselves. It’s not what we think
that is important.
 Act on behalf of ‘vulnerable’ people to protect their rights
 Prevent harm
 Create a safe and supportive environment
 Help people in crises

11. Non – maleficence (to do no
harm)
 do not to inflict harm on people
 do not cause pain or suffering
 do not incapacitate
 do not cause offence
 do not deprive people
 do not kill

12. Justice
 Treating people fairly
 Not favouring some individuals/groups over others
 Acting in a non–discriminatory / non-prejudicial way
 Respect for peoples rights
 Respect for the law

13. Justice
Distributive Justice – sharing the scarce resources in society in a fair and
just manner (e.g. health services, professional time)
 How should we share out healthcare resources?
 How do we share out our time with patients?
 Deciding how to do this raises some difficult questions
Patients should get…..
 an equal share ?
 just enough to meet their needs ?
 what they deserve ?
 what they can pay for ?

14. 4 ethical rules
 Veracity – truth telling, informed consent, respect for
autonomy
 Privacy – a persons right to remain private, to not
disclose information
 Confidentiality – only sharing private information on a
‘need to know basis’
 Fidelity – loyalty, maintaining the duty to care for all no
matter who they are or what they may have done

15. References
Beauchamp T and Childress J (2001) Principles of Biomedical Ethics 5th
Edition Oxford University Press
Hunt G (1994) Ethical Issues in Nursing Routledge. London
Seedhouse D (1998) Ethics the heart of Health Care Wiley. Winchester.
Watt H (2000) Life and Death in Health Care Ethics Routledge. London
http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm#SH2a
http://www.nursingethics.ca/articles.html
http://www.freedomtocare.org/iane.htm
http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/resources/sub/healthsci/a-
zlist/ethics.html

16. Thank you