What is the difference between values and ethical dilemmas when it comes to nursing . Give supporting examples

To distinguish between values and ethical dilemmas in nursing is quite significant to enhance the provision of ethical care. Here’s a breakdown of each concept with supporting examples:Here’s a breakdown of each concept with supporting examples:

 Values

 Definition:

 Values refer to enduring beliefs or principles that people have and which they use to direct their behaviour and decision making. These are what are deemed to be valuable and good in life.

 Characteristics:

 Personal and Professional Beliefs: Values are learnt from experience, from the community one finds oneself in, from the religion one practices or even from other sources.

 Guidance for Behavior: They determine the manner in which people deal with certain circumstances and arrive at their conclusions.

 Consistency: Values, however, are known to be quite constant across the years.

 Examples in Nursing:

 Compassion: A nurse must be compassionate and make sure to be sensitive to every patient he or she attends to. This value makes them be more concerned with the welfare of others, and this makes them be more comforting as well as supportive to others even in the most difficult situations.

 Respect for Autonomy: Another value that a nurse has is patient’s self-determination, which entails that the nurse should uphold patient’s right to make decisions for themselves even if the decisions they make are not what the nurse would do in similar situations.

 Ethical Dilemmas

 Definition:

 Ethical dilemmas are situations that present two or more ethical issues, values, principles or obligations that are in conflict and thus one cannot easily decide what to do. More often than not, these above mentioned dilemmas pose moral ambivalence or moral paradox.

 Characteristics:

 Conflict of Values: Ethical dilemmas are defined by the conflict of interests or the conflict of values.

 Complex Decision-Making: They demand that one makes a balance between the results of different choices that one has to make.

 Moral Uncertainty: Dilemmas often entail questions of decision making, even when values are known, as to what is the ‘right’ thing to do.

 Examples in Nursing:

 End-of-Life Decisions: An example of an ethical problem might be when the patient’s relatives want to prolong the life of the patient and continue the aggressive treatment, while the patient wants to switch to the palliative care. The nurse has to consider the patient’s autonomy and the family’s preference and the possible outcomes of continued treatment.

 Resource Allocation: For instance, when there is scarcity of crucial commodities for instance ventilators for patients, a nurse will be in a better position to make a decision on how to do so in the best way possible. The conflict is a ethical one that centres on managing care of patients with competing necessities such as prognosis, potential for improvement and equity.

 Comparison

 Values vs. Ethical Dilemmas:

 Values are defined as those principles that people hold and which influence their conduct and choices. These are the principles that guide ethical practice and behaviour in nursing practice.

 Ethical Dilemmas are defined as situations where one is faced with two or more moral issues that stand in contradiction to each other thus creating a dilemma as to which way is the right one to take.

 Supporting Examples:

 Scenario: Compassion versus patient’s right of self-determination

 Value: A nurse should be compassionate and therefore, the patient must be made comfortable.

 Ethical Dilemma: The patient, a cancer patient, wants to forego further treatment and be put on hospice, while the family wants to go for further aggressive treatment. The nurse must balance the patient’s right to comfort and the family’s rights as well as the patient’s right to self-determination.

 Scenario: Candour against Respecting the Patient’s Emotions

 Value: A nurse embraces people’s nature of honesty in that they are truthful with their patients.

 Ethical Dilemma: A patient has been given a terminal illness and the nurse is stuck between the full disclosure of the illness or not to tell the patient at all so as to spare him or her some pain. The nurse has the ethic of telling the truth and yet the patient may have a negative reaction to what the nurse is telling them.