Ethical Challenges for Nurses Essay

During disasters and pandemics, nurses are exposed to greater risk and are required to work to their full capacity despite the circumstances. “Nurses may often find themselves faced with moral dilemmas when working during pandemics, as they must balance between caring for patients while looking after themselves and their families.” (Alloubani, 2021). The article “Covid- 19: Ethical challenges for Nurses”, it outlined three ethical issues that nurses faced while willingly caring for patients in an extremely risky situation They were safety of patients, allocation of scarce supplies and relationships with patients and their families. (Morely, G. et al, 2020). Ethical Challenges for Nurses Essay Having cared for adult patients with Covid – 19, I could relate to those ethical issues. Requiring us to provide care to patients with inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) went against the Center for Disease and Prevention Guidelines for isolation precautions and hospital policy. This not only jeopardized the patients’ safety but also put us nurses and other healthcare at risk of acquiring a disease which could kill us. The biggest challenge that nurses had to endure during the Covid-19 pandemic was the lack of PPE (isolation gowns and especially N-95 respirator masks).

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It was difficult to access to the N-95 masks and isolation gowns and having to use the same equipment for multiple days and weeks at a time, was frightening. We would get issued new N-95 respirator masks every two weeks unless it was visibly soiled or if it had broken on your shift. This was a huge challenge to deal with because the N-95 respirator mask is supposed to be single use. I kept thinking how effective could the mask be was when it was being used multiple times during the shift, while going back and forth into all of the isolation rooms. My coworkers and I were very concerned that we would get Covid – 19 or bring it home to our family members, some of which had multiple health concerns. After working all night long most of our staff would either change before leaving for home and showering in the hope that we were not bringing the virus home. Another ethical issue was the fact that as a pediatric nurse, I was caring for adult patients.  Ethical Challenges for Nurses Essay I have not cared for adults in 17 years when I was a student nurse. I was not familiar with the medication doses, and some of the equipment and there was always the fear of making an error. Due to the number of patients, we were assigned to many more patients than was safe. Every space in our hospital was used to place patients, even the hospital library. We had no choice but to do the best that we could but ethically as nurses knowing that we couldn’t do more, saddened us. The patients were frightened to begin with and with our masks and eye protection it was hard for them to see who we were and make a stronger connection. Fortunately, the horror that I experienced is over and my unit is back to being the pediatric unit. We don’t know if or when the Covid – 19 virus or another novel virus will emerge. At least now we will be more prepared. Ethical Challenges for Nurses Essay

Alloubani, A. et al. (2021). Nurses’ ethics in the care of patients during the COVID-19

pandemic. Frontiers in medicine, 8, 589550. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.589550

Morley, G., Grady, C., McCarthy, J., & Ulrich, C. M. (2020). Covid-19: Ethical challenges for

nurses. The Hastings Center report, 50(3), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1110 Ethical Challenges for Nurses Essay