Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.

Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers

Part 1. Principle of Beneficence

The principles of beneficence, respect for autonomy and nonmaleficence are three basic practice principles that govern nursing practice. The principle of beneficence is concerned with ensuring that a nurse’s actions are targeted at promoting good. This is with regards to the patient. In nursing, this principle ensures that nurses do as that they can to benefit the patient irrespective of the prevailing situation.Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

It requires that all the medical treatments and procedures that are recommended by the nurse must be with the intention of doing the ‘most good’ for the patient. To ensure beneficence, the nurse must consider the individual circumstances of each patient since what is good for one patient is not necessarily good for another patient(Zaccagnini & White, 2017). The principle of respect for autonomy is concerned with respecting the decisions that others make with regards to their own lives and ensuring that they have the comprehensive and complete information to make the right decisions. In nursing, this principle requires that each patient be allowed to retain control over his/her body. In applying this principle, the nurse would be expected to advice and make suggestions to the patient, but must under no circumstance attempt to coerce or persuade the patient to make a decision that inhibits the patient’s right over his/her body. In the end, each patient must be allowed to independently make his/her own decisions according to personal beliefs and values irrespective of whether the nurse believes that the decision is in the patient’s best interest(Zaccagnini & White, 2017).Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay. The principle of nonmaleficence holds that nurses have an obligation not to inflict harm on patients, whether intentional or unintentional. In nursing, this principle acts as the end goal for all the nursing care decision and implies that the nurse must consider whether others would be harmed by the decision made, even if the decision is intended to benefit an individual patient (Zaccagnini& White, 2017).Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.

In the Tuskegee experiment, as many as 399 men were infected with syphilis and 201 were in the control group as healthy individuals without syphilis. Many of the infected research participants ended up dying prematurely when their lives could have been saved using the available treatment options. Almost all the infected participants suffered horribly even as they were systematically deceived by the researchers. Many of the participants were unsophisticated and uneducated and lured to the study with promises of special recognition, medical care, cheap burials and free meals (Schmidt, N., & Brown, 2019).Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.

Much of the significance of nurse Eunice Rivers in the Tuskegee study is based on her oath as a nurse to uphold the basic practice principle of beneficence, respect for autonomy and nonmaleficence. As a part of the Tuskegee medical research study protocol, participants were prevented from accessing available treatment. From the onset, Rivers was aware and troubled by the nature of the study and asks some questions when she is asked to return as part of the research study staff. She questioned the direction of the mercury backrubs and arsenic injections, and requested that they be replaced with placebo of heat liniment. She was disturbed by the fact that patients were not informed that treatment had been withheld, and that procedures to obtain spinal taps were presented as ‘backshot’ treatment.Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay. Initially, nurse Rivers accepted the pragmatic view that her involvement in the study was expedient to obtain treatment that would be available to more people than had been in the study. Throughout the study she accepted the idea of not informing the participants that they were not receiving treatment, and justified her choices as necessary since the participants were uneducated and likely to disrupt the study if informed (Awertschenko, 2017). Overall, the study makes it clear that nurse Rivers violated the principles of beneficence, autonomy and nonmaleficence since the participants were exposed to intentional harm and not facilitated in making informed decisions.Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.

After reviewing information on nurse licensure compact (NLC) by visiting the NLC site, respond to the following question:

• What are the pros and cons of having a compact license?

• Which states are currently part of the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC)

• Discuss the role of the nursing board to ensure safe nursing practice.

Review information on the National Council for State of Board of Nursing (NCSBN) website, as well as Chapter 4 of your textbook regarding nurse licensure compact. Using a narrative format, respond to the questions on nurse licensure compact.Ethical Behavior of Nurse Eunice Rivers Essay.