and Advocacy
Learning Outcomes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Learning Outcomes
5. Discuss common ethical issues
currently facing health care
professionals.
6. Describe ways in which nurses can
enhance their ethical decision
making and practice.
7. Discuss the advocacy role of the
nurse.
Copyright 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Cognitive Development
Moral decisions require persons to
think and reason
Reasoning is a cognitive function
Ability to make decisions develops
over the lifespan
Values
Enduring beliefs or attitudes about the
worth of a person, object, idea, or
action
May be unspoken or even subconscious
Underlie all moral dilemmas
Influence decisions and actions
including nurses ethical decision
making
Copyright 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Moral Development
Process of learning difference
between right and wrong
Begins in childhood and continues
throughout life
Moral development theories provide
frameworks to view and clarify moral
and ethical dilemmas
Code of Ethics
Formal statement of a groups ideals
and values
Serves as a standard for professional
actions
Provides ethical standards for
professional behavior
Values Clarification
The following steps can help clarify values:
1. List alternatives
2. Examine possible consequences of
choices
3. Choose freely
4. Feel good about the choice
5. Affirm the choice
6. Act on the choice
7. Act with a pattern
Copyright 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Moral Issues
Arouse conscience
Concerned with important values and
norms evoke words such as good,
bad, wrong, should and ought
Moral Principles
Statements about broad, general,
philosophic concepts
Provide the foundation for moral rules
which are specific prescriptions for
actions
Useful in ethical discussions
May be able to agree on principles that
apply
May serve as a basis for the solution to
the problem
Copyright 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc.