Ethical Discussion Nursing Specialty and Ethical Concern

Ethical Discussion
Nursing Specialty and Ethical Concern
In the future, I intend on being an acute care nurse practitioner in the critical care setting. The
ethical concern that I would have in my future practice is the mistrust patients have for providers.
As a registered nurse working before covid, it was rare to have a patient or family that showed
distrust for the provider. However, as I work in the covid ICU, I have seen many families who
have refused medications, yelled at providers, and threatened staff due to mistrust. I’ve heard
many families verbalize that all healthcare providers see is their family member as a number, not
an actual person. As I advance in the nursing field, this ethical concern will impact my practice.
Ethical Framework
The ethical framework that will guide my nursing practice will be the International Code of
Ethics for Nurses. This framework was developed in 1953 and has been revised since. In this
framework, there were four responsibilities: promote health, prevent illness, restore health, and
alleviate suffering (International Council of Nurses [ICN], 2015). This will direct the way I take
care of my patients. These four responsibilities will be the goal daily while providing care. This
framework was chosen for my particular specialty because patients in the critical care setting
need to know that these are the goals of their care. I would like these responsibilities to be
displayed through my work daily, so my patients don’t question my intentions. I especially want
this to be shown with my patients who are minorities. Due to the infamous Tuskeegee syphilis
study that occurred from 1932 to 1972, many minorities are rightfully distrustful of healthcare
providers. (Alsan et al., 2019) In regards to covid African Americans makeup only 13.4% of the
population but reportedly make up more than 24% of the deaths. In a poll done in March 2020,
34% of African Americans believed that covid was created in a lab compared to 26% of whites.