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For the 13th year in a row, Gallup poll results indicate Americans rate nursing as the most honest profession and nurses as having the highest ethical standards (Gallup, 2014). In addition, the American Nurses Association (ANA) identified the focus of 2015 National Nurses Week as "Ethical Practice, Quality Care" as part of its effort for 2015 to be named "The Year of Ethics." The new Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (ANA, 2015) (Code) was released in January after a 4-year review process involving input from several thousand RNs (OnCourse Learning Corporation, 2015). The second edition of the Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretative Statements: Development, Interpretation, and Application (Fowler, 2015) was released in April.
This two-part series will explore the new Code and its use in every day clinical practice with a case situation for each article. Part I will introduce the Code, discuss the glossary, and use a nursing case situation to explore the first four provisions. The second part of the series will continue discussion of the last five provisions.
The Code (ANA, 2015) articulates the ethical obligations of all registered nurses. The nine provisions identify the responsibilities of nurses, while the interpretive statements provide guidance in their application. The introduction to the Code explains why certain terms were chosen, such as patient versus client, as well as the use of moral and ethical word choices. This introduction also gives an overview of some terms, and includes links to foundational and supplemental documents on the ANA ethics web page. Because many terms in nursing ethics are used imprecisely and interchangeably with possible misconceptions, this edition of the Code includes a glossary of 49 terms, such as compassion fatigue, moral distress, and social media (ANA, 2015, pp. 35-45).
The first three provisions explain the most basic values and commitments of the nurse, all of which might be helpful in exploring the following nursing case situation. These provisions address the nurse's duties to respect the patient, unrestricted by considerations of social or economic status, personal attributes, or the nature of health problems. The fourth provision discusses the nurse's accountability in practice.
The following nursing case situation is used to illustrate some of the Code violations:
Keisha and Kyle...