Ethical Issues in Nursing

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Çalışkan E., Duruk N.

12 th International Acharaka Congres on Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery and Sciences, Baku, Azerbaycan, 15 - 17 Eylül 2025, ss.574-582, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

Özet

ABSTRACT

  Introduction: Nurses, who are the primary staff responsible for care and treatment and who are in constant communication with patients and their relatives within the healthcare sector, frequently encounter ethical issues that they often find difficult to resolve due to their expanding roles and responsibilities (Aslan, Vural & Avcı, 2003; Utlu, 2016; Cerit & Öztürk, 2018).

  Ethical problems commonly faced by nurses include differences of opinion with other team members or institutional policies regarding patient care and treatment, protection of patient rights, care of terminally ill patients, obtaining consent, allocation of limited resources, and unethical behaviors of colleagues (Callaghan, 2003). The literature shows that nurses experience ethical dilemmas due to institutional and systemic factors such as lack of materials and staff, hospital expenses, and ambiguities in job descriptions. In addition, while providing care to patients and their families, they encounter dilemmas such as being unable to inform patients and families about diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, being excluded from decision-making processes, uncertainty about participating in abortion procedures, caring for terminally ill patients in pain, and not advocating for patients when research is conducted without consent (Kuuppelomaki & Sirkka, 1998; Karaöz, 2000; Raines, 2000). In his study, Han (2018) found that nurses encountered occupational accidents (n=25), mobbing (n=21), violence (n=20), discrimination (n=18), excessive workload (n=15), noncompliance with hand hygiene (n=7), and malpractice (n=4). Similarly, in Iştar Işıklı’s (2018) study, participants reported that the most common ethical issues in their institutions were communication problems, being assigned excessive responsibilities, disrespect, conflicts of interest, rule violations, injustice, and discrimination.

  Ethical problems require moral judgment and decision-making in the face of challenges that cannot be classified as absolutely right or wrong. They may manifest in various ways, such as ethical uncertainty, ethical dilemmas, ethical violations, moral distress/anger, conscientious objection, and moral reckoning.

  Conclusion: Since nurses are the healthcare professionals closest to the patient, they can observe patients more effectively, notice changes more easily, and intervene quickly when necessary. Alongside these advantages, they are also more likely to become directly involved in ethical problems and have the opportunity to demonstrate their professional competence.