Chapter 6: Values, Ethics, and Advocacy UP TO LEVEL 8

A nurse is preparing a client for discharge from the cardiac unit and observes cigarettes in the client's belongings. The nurse asks the client to consider the client's health and that of the client's spouse. This is an example of:

values clarification.

A female client is brought to the emergency room with matted hair, bruising, and malnutrition. The nurse suspects physical abuse and neglect. The nurse states, "This happens to many women." Which type of ethical approach is the nurse exhibiting?

Feminist

Which action most clearly demonstrates a nurse's commitment to social justice?

Lobbying for an expansion of healthcare resources and benefits to those in poverty

Which best defines value clarification?

A process by which people come to understand their own values and value systems

An illegal immigrant with no health insurance sustained life-threatening injuries in an automobile accident. Which action in this case demonstrates the ethical principle of justice?

Airlifting the client to a local trauma center for emergency surgery

Which ethical principle refers to the obligation to do good?

Beneficence

When examining values, a nurse notes that one country allows assisted suicide and another outlaws it, making it punishable by imprisonment. Which factors best explain the differences in values between these two countries?

Cultural

Nursing practice consistent with the Code of Ethics for Nurses includes which actions? Select all that apply.

Delivering culturally safe care Acknowledging that the client is the focus and center of care and remains a part of the treatment team Protecting the client's right to confidentiality and privacy

Which statement best conveys the concept of ethical agency?

Ethical practice requires a skill set that must be conscientiously learned and nurtured.

A hospice nurse is caring for a client with terminal cancer. The family would like the client to continue aggressive therapy to treat the cancer, but the client has voiced to the nurse that no further pursuit of treatment is desired. The nurse speaks to the family about the client's wishes, condition, and terminal state. This action is most likely derived from which nursing obligation?

Ethical principles

Using the nursing process to make ethical decisions involves following several steps. Which step is the nurse implementing when reflecting on the decision-making process and the role it will play in making future decisions?

Evaluating

Which nursing action demonstrates the principle of fidelity?

Filing an incident report after making a medication error

The nurse beginning practice would like to access the standards for ethical practice. Which organization should the nurse research for these standards?

International Council of Nurses

A nurse is providing care for three clients on a medical unit, two of whom are significantly more acute than the third. The nurse is making a concerted effort to ensure that the less acute client still receives a reasonable amount of time, attention, and care during the course of the shift. Which ethical principle is the nurse attempting to practice?

Justice

A parent of a 17-year-old high school student is allowing the child to decide which college the child will attend. When the child requests direction from the parent in making this decision, the parent responds by stating, "You will need to make this decision on your own." What type of value transmission is the parent displaying?

Laissez-faire

When analyzing an ethical dilemma according to the ethical framework, what is most important for the nurse to take into consideration?

Standards of conduct

A nurse is applying a care-based approach to an ethical dilemma. When integrating this approach, which concept should the nurse keep in mind? Select all that apply.

The caring relationship is essential to the approach. Clients are people and are to be respected. Attention is needed to focus on each person's individual situation.

Which is the best definition of ethics?

The formal, systematic study of moral beliefs

Nurses who value client advocacy follow what guideline?

They give priority to the good of the individual client rather than to the good of society in general.

A nurse is providing care for a client with cancer. The client's spouse requests that the client not be told that the client is terminal. The nurse complies with this request. The nurse's action is a breach of which ethical principle?

fidelity

Socialization into the nursing profession may have the most significant effect on:

values.

A nurse has completed 4 hours of an 8-hour shift on a medical-surgical unit when the nursing supervisor calls. The nursing supervisor directs the nurse to give a report to the other two nurses on the medical-surgical unit and immediately report to the telemetry unit to assist with staff needs on that unit. The nurse informs the supervisor that the nurse has been busy with client assignments and feels this will overwhelm the nurses on the medical-surgical unit. The supervisor informs the nurse that the need is greater on the telemetry unit. This is an example of which type of ethical problem?

Allocation of scarce nursing resources

A school nurse interviewing parents of a child who is doing poorly in school determines that the parents practice a laissez-faire method of discipline. What are examples of this form of value transmission? Select all that apply.

An adolescent boy explores religions of friends in hopes of developing his own faith. An adolescent girl tries alcohol at a party with her friends.

The nurse has an ethical dilemma and is using the ethical decision-making steps to guide to a correct decision. Place in order the steps the nurse uses in this process.

Gather data and assess the situation. Identify the ethical problem. Identify and weigh the alternatives. Implement the decision. Evaluate the decision.

The nurse is managing the care for a postoperative client. How does the nurse demonstrate advocacy?

Limiting visitors due to the client reporting pain