Society often times dictates how one thinks, acts, influences their judgment and decision making process. Culture is inert in individuals and it can influence how one feels, thinks, and reacts in any situations or events. Moral values are oftentimes tainted by the environment where one lives and the so called the way of life.
In nursing, the interplay of these various elements can influence ones ethical decision, manipulate ethical dilemma, and dictates ethical distress. What is important is that ethical decisions can be learned and influenced by so many variables. The Code of Ethics for Nurses was designed so that every nurse must act and think a certain way ensuring that the clients rights is protected as well as the nurses rights are protected. The Code of Ethics provides rules and standard for nurses to maintain and elicit ethical behavior that is expected when practicing nursing in any health care settings. The Code also gives guidance for decision making that concerns ethical issues, allows self-reflections and self evaluation of nursing care practice, and peer review evaluation. The Code of Ethics also includes the interpretative statements to provide consistency in interpreting the code.
The Code of Ethics can be viewed only through the American Nurses Association website and a print copy is available for purchase, visit the link at:
American Nurses Code of Ethics
For additional information on global Code of Ethics for Nurses, visit the following off-site links:
International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics for Nurses
Canadian Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses
Nursing Ethics CEU On-line courses
If you are looking for other resources on Nursing Ethics, the following are highly recommended:
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