Bioethics

A Nursing Perspective

8th Edition - September 7, 2022
Author: Megan-Jane Johnstone
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 7 2 9 5 - 4 4 2 8 - 3
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 7 2 9 5 - 8 9 9 4 - 9

Now in its eighth edition, Bioethics: A Nursing Perspective provides practical guidance on the ethical issues you might come across in nursing practice, with real-world examples th… Read more

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Now in its eighth edition, Bioethics: A Nursing Perspective provides practical guidance on the ethical issues you might come across in nursing practice, with real-world examples that help to bring this important subject to life.

Author Dr Megan-Jane Johnstone AO, Australia's foremost nursing ethics scholar, provides a comprehensive framework for negotiating the ethical challenges, obligations and responsibilities you might face. The text is engaging and easy to follow, and has been fully updated to reflect current issues in health care such as nurse practitioner assisted dying, pandemic ethics, and the moral costs of misinformation and medical conspiracy theories. .

This book is a suitable companion to the law and ethics components of both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing studies, and is relevant for all nurses who encounter ethical problems in their everyday practice.

Cover Image
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Section 1 Foundations of Nursing Ethics and Professional Conduct
Chapter 1 Professional Standards and the Requirement to be Ethical
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Unprofessional conduct and professional misconduct
Questioning the requirement to be morally exemplary
Nursing as a moral project
National and international standards of conduct
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnote
Chapter 2 Ethics, Bioethics and Nursing Ethics: Some Working Definitions
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
The importance of understanding ethics terms and concepts
The need for a critical inquiry into ethical professional practice
Understanding moral language
What is ethics?
What is bioethics?
What is nursing ethics?
What ethics is not
The task of ethics, bioethics and nursing ethics
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 3 Moral Theory and the Ethical Practice of Nursing
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Moral justification
Theoretical perspectives informing ethical practice
Limitations and weaknesses of ethical theory
Moral justification and moral theory – some further thoughts
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnote
Chapter 4 Moral Problems in Nursing and Health Care Contexts
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Distinguishing moral problems from other sorts of problems
Identifying different kinds of moral problems
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 5 Moral Decision-Making in Nursing and Health Care Contexts
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Everyday moral problems in nursing
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Section 2 Culture and Context
Chapter 6 Cross-cultural Ethics and the Ethical Practice of Nursing
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Cross-cultural ethics and nursing
Culture and its relationship to ethics
The nature and implications of a cross-cultural approach to ethics
Moral diversity and the challenge of moral pluralism
Dealing with problems associated with a cross-cultural approach to ethics in health care
Ethics, cultural competency, cultural safety and cultural humility
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 7 Ethics, Dehumanisation and Vulnerable Populations
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Vulnerability
Humanness, dehumanisation and vulnerability
Identifying vulnerable individuals and groups
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Section 3 Culture and Context
Chapter 8 Patients’ Rights to and in Health Care
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
What are patients’ rights?
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 9 Ethical Issues in Mental Health Care
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Human rights and the mentally ill
Recovery-oriented services
Coercion and competency to decide
Psychiatric advance directives
Ethical issues in suicide and parasuicide
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 10 Ethical Issues in End-of-Life Care
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Not For Treatment (NFT) directives
Not For Resuscitation (NFR)/Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) directives
Medical futility
Quality of life
Advance directives
Advance care planning
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 11 The Moral Politics of Abortion and Euthanasia
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Morality policy
Moral politics
Abortion
Arguments for and against the moral permissibility of abortion
Euthanasia
Position statements and the nursing profession
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 12 Professional Judgment, Moral Quandaries and Taking ‘Appropriate Action’
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Moral conflict and professional judgment
Conscientious objection
Whistleblowing in health care
Preventing ethics conflicts
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 13 Professional Obligations to Report Harmful Behaviours: Risks to Patient Safety, Child Abuse and Elder Abuse
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Reporting notifiable and health-impaired conduct of practitioners and students
Reporting child abuse and elder abuse
Child Abuse and Neglect
Elder abuse and neglect
Ethical issues associated with protecting children and elderly people from abuse
The moral demand to report child and elder maltreatment
The notion of harm and its link with the moral duty to prevent child and elder abuse
Considerations against reporting the maltreatment of children and elderly people
Response to the criticisms
The importance of a supportive socio-cultural environment in abuse prevention
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Section 4 Nursing Ethics Futures – Challenges in the 21st Century and Beyond
Chapter 14 Pandemic Ethics
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic
The ‘duty to care’
The duty of the public and the value of solidarity
The moral costs of making tragic choices
The moral costs of medical conspiracy theories
Vaccine ethics
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Chapter 15 Ethics and Public Health Emergencies: Climate Change, Antimicrobial Resistance, Health Inequities and Emergency Preparedness
Learning Objectives
Keywords
Introduction
Public health emergencies
Inequalities in health and health care
Emergency preparedness
Conclusion
Critical Questions
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index