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Hi!!I have attached the document with the guidelines and information necessary for this assignment.
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Guidelines: You are expected to reply to two other students’ response essays and include a
reference that justifies your post. Do not critic your peers work, rather give your own point of view on
the topic; adding to the topic. Your reply must be at least 3 paragraphs for each student essay.
The response must be 12 Times New Roman, font, APA.
Below are the 2 student essays:
David A. student #1
1. Think about the ethical theories and approaches in Chapter 4 and the moral conflicts you have
experienced in the past. Have you used one of these approaches to resolving conflict? Which
theory or approach have you used?
There are many times in life when we are faced with a situation that forces us to think about
our moral and ethical values in order to act. When in this position, our minds usually backtrack
to the previous time we encountered a similar scenario, allowing us to compare the situation in
order to decide. Sometimes this doesn’t help, and we are taken back to what we were taught in
school and what our parents and loved ones taught us, “always do the right thing”, “don’t do
unto others what you don’t want done unto you” (Confucius, n.d.)… The question remains, what
is the right thing to do? What is the best course of action to take?
The theory I can relate to the most and have used to make decisions in the past has been
Utilitarianism. To me, doing what maximizes good and happiness for the greatest number of
people is always the best action to take (Masters, 2017). This is the basic principle of
utilitarianism, which in a way is a form of consequentialism because when implemented, we
have the outcome in mind, which is what is going to bring the most good and happiness to the
greatest number of individuals and then, take that action (Nathanson, n.d.). This theory is one I
try to live my life by and implement when I ever find myself in some sort of moral dilemma.
A scenario that comes to mind now regarding the use of this theory was not too long ago.
It was last semester; I and a group of colleagues were studying for our Pediatrics final exam and
we could not agree on what to study first. The environment become a little hectic until I decided
to step up and tally what each person thought was best to study first. The result was, 4 of my
peers wanted to start with developmental milestones and 1 wanted to go over heart defects. I
spoke to all 5 and advised that we should do what the majority wanted to do first and then we
would proceed with the heart. As a result, taking that action would bring the most happiness and
pleasure to the greatest number involved. We all came into agreement and did just that, we
started with the milestones and when finished we proceeded to study heart defects.
2. Has there ever been a time when you have experienced the dilemma of having to make a
choice that you know will affect the well-being of another individual? Have you ever
experienced moral suffering?
None of us are perfect and as per myself, I may be the worst of all. We did not come into this
life with instructions or a manual that tells us what to do and how to do it when faced with a
situation we can’t handle or feels out of our control. There have been many times when I have
experienced the dilemma of having to make a decision, I knew would affect the well-being of
another person and as a result I have experienced some sort of moral suffering.
I am not going to write about any of the times this has happened to me because I feel it is
something person that I do not want to share and I don’t think I have to, but I will give an
overview. The last time I was encountered with a situation like this, I was not able to be there for
someone at a time they needed me most. I had to do something else that was also important, thus
leaving that person’s side, making them feel awful and having me experience moral suffering or
distress.
I knew I had to be there for that person, not only was it the right thing to do because they
needed me at that time the most, but I felt I should have been there with them. As a result of not
being able to stay due to the circumstances I was faced with, I felt extremely bad after and was
faced with moral suffering. According to research, this happens to many nurses in our field,
many times, they know a patient may need them, but because of shortage of time, other patients,
meetings, and policy or protocols, they cannot be there for that patient the time they require. This
causes them uncomfortable feelings and unbalances (Papazoglou, 2017).
References:
Confucius. (n.d.). A quote by Confucius. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/20771-don-t-do-unto-others-what-you-don-t-want-doneunto
Markovits, J. (n.d.). Ethics: Utilitarianism, Part 1. Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/wi-phi/wiphi-value-theory/wiphiethics/v/utilitarianism-part-1
Masters, K. (2017). Role development in professional nursing practice. Burlington, MA:
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Nathanson, S. (n.d.). Act and Rule Utilitarianism. Retrieved from
Papazoglou, K., & Chopko, B. (2017, November 15). The Role of Moral Suffering (Moral
Distress and Moral Injury) in Police Compassion Fatigue and PTSD: An Unexplored
Topic. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5694767/
Yindra B. Student #2
1. Think about the ethical theories and approaches in Chapter 4 and the moral conflicts
you have experienced in the past. Have you used one of these approaches to resolving
conflict? Which theory or approach have you used?
In the field of nursing, there exist different theories and approaches used in resolving conflicts.
Theories include virtual ethics, Ethics of care, Deontology, Utilitarianism, Ethics principles, and
the Natural law theory (Buts & Rich, 2019). Approaches, on the other hand, are classified into
Nonmaleficence, autonomy, justice, and beneficence. Typically, these theories and procedures
are used differently and independently when resolving conflicts.
I have been involved in cases of conflict resolution, and I have always used theories in finding
solutions. During my duties on my clinicals, I received a patient who had chronic abdominal pain
after prolonged vomiting. The patient also had inappropriate history of alcoholism, known
diabetes, and a left leg amputation. The nurse in charge asked me to diagnose the patient and
suggest proper medication. After diagnosis, I suggested an offer of frequent pain medication to
the patient than any other patient. The physician in charge, however, refused to order more
morphine for the patient prescription. I had to use the ethics of care theory to resolve the
conflict (Buts & Rich, 2019).
The ethics of care is contained in model and propose four phases in solving the conflict (Kaur &
Singh, 2017). These phases are not applied in systematic and may overlap each other. The steps
are:
1. Caring About
2. Taking Care of
3. Care provision
4. Care receiver
In the application of this theory, I had a responsibility to take the physician in charge through the
theory so he can understand the need of administering the patient with more morphine dose and
hence order more of it. The first was an explanation on care about which highlighted the need for
administration of more morphine on the patient. Of course, I had to explain the patient condition
word to word (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). In taking care of phase, I made the physician
understand why I saw the need to respond to the patients’ pain citing the acute pain as the cause.
In caregiving, I had to suggest the physician change in the analgesia order, which eventually so
more morphine procured. The procurement increase was in line with the patient need for
specialized care. Finally, in phase four of care received, I administered the drug to the patients
while still monitoring if it was working. Indeed, it worked perfectly, and the relationship
between patient, physician, and me was enhanced. My theory, therefore, worked perfectly.
2. Has there ever been a time when you have experienced the dilemma of having to make a
choice that you know will affect the well-being of another individual? Have you ever
experienced moral suffering?
Over the course of my career, I have made a decision that affected the wellbeing of other
individuals. It happened one time at the clinic I work, when I was the medical assistant in charge
that day, the clinic was receiving a massive number of patients a day, and in the process of
accommodating and attending to all patients, as the leader I had to change the reporting time of
the rest of the medical assistants.
Initially, all the medical assistants had been reporting to work at 8:00 am, but I decided to change
it to 7:00 am. The decision was not taken positively as other staff complained it was against our
ethics and policies to change the rules without consulting all stakeholders. Others complained
they come from far and could not make to reach the clinic on time.
Even though my decision was on goodwill in that I wanted all patients who visited the clinic in a
day to receive treatment, I experienced moral suffering since other medical assistants felt as if I
was being unfair to them. They felt that way until we had a discussion and everyone, including
myself, understood the logic of the incident and how to resolve the incident not only between the
staff but to provide the best treatment for our patients.
References
Buts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2019). Nursing Ethics. Jones and Barlett Learning.
Kaur, I., & Singh, H. (2017). Advanced Version Control (AVC): A Paradigm Shift From
Version Control to Conflict Management. International Journal of Computer Applications, 7-15.
Masters, K. (2017). Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice. Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing
Roles for Nursing. Orthopedic Nursing, 12-36.
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