Example of future work:
This is a previous work. I hope I can type it "verbatim" because the original computer file were lost,
stolen or corrupted. This one seem to have caused a lot of controversy. I am extremely interested in
bio-ethics (such as cloning, experimenting on animals and etc.) but I didn't note those concerns for
this quickly composed paper! This is the only example I could find right now. Or else I would have
chose another example.
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June 23, 2005.
Question asked: Sometimes a nurse, when directed by a doctor to do something unethical, has a
duty to disobey directives given by a doctor.
MY answer:
A nurse has many definitions but, in the interest of consistency, I will refer to the nurse with the
least training and argue that a nurse has the duty to obey directives given by a doctor or risk
being charged with insubordination. She should defer to the doctor whenever possible because I
argue that their interests in providing the best care for the patient should be similar. Even though, in
most cases, nurses may have a greater opportunity in some settings to observe daily care because
of their job classification, nurses come and they go. However, the doctor is most likely to have had a
longer relationship with the patient or a more intimate relationship with the doctor who does.
Moreover, they are most likely to endure the legal repercussions because of their advance(d)
training, their "deep pockets", and a more intimate associations with the patient. Although strong
ethics are desirable, all moral ethics are not legally binding. Having strong ethics, which maybe
logical(ly) sound, is no(t) a guarantee that they are better than others are. Therefore, it is even more
difficult to define what one's duty should be. Moreover, even Christian ethics argue that if one has a
strong and admirable urge to respond to one's sense of "duty", one should also be prepared to
suffer the negative or even positive consequences, when it conflicts with the doctor's directives and
"interferes with the physician-patient relationship" (Benjamin, 107).
Others may argue that when one becomes "a registered nurse, she assumed an obligation to
provide, safe, effective, and morally responsible care to her clients.. Therefore she has a duty to do
her best...within her legal obligations, as defined by the state nursing practice act and her contract
with the hospital, to question any medical order and refrain from implementing it if, in her judgment,
the order is unsafe" (Benjamin, 98).
The key term is legal obligations,which may not be synonymous with ethical duty.I argue that there
is always a potential for conflict in any place of employment but the best employee relationships are
those where all the employees recognize the value of teamwork. From my own experiences, I
believe this is more prevalent in the medical profession than it is not because it is usually easier to
recognize the benefits of all working in the best of the patient. What is unethical about having a little
tact when asking a doctor, whether male or female, questions that arise from observations? In the
health care profession where everyone is struggling, most doctors appreciate the observations of
their staff. Although administrators are increasingly usurping that role, despite the questions, all is
well if others realize that in most cases, those same doctors must make the final decisions about
treatment plans or approve the protocols that permit others to do so. We, as Americans, have not
achieved the standards of medical care that we have because the nurses and doctors are constantly
fighting amongst themselves. They are not! A "nurse must determine the extent to which the act in
question constitutes a rupture of her integrity or wholeness as a person or a particular self. Then she
must determine whether the shame or "bad conscience" that would follow from her performance of
the act constitutes a greater threat to her well-being than the possible punishment that may be
forthcoming from whatever authority...may be displeased by her refusal". (120). However, although
she may have sustained her own personal integrity that does not automatically means she has
discharged her duty as a nurse that she had also sworn to uphold.
End of article/paper.
I am not a nurse. I wish I was, though.
Single letters in parenthesis are errors I corrected in previous paper.