Ethics question for Arizona Nurses

U.S.A. Arizona

Published

Thanks for the help!

I've pretty much obsessively studied the book for the past week, and I also asked the AZ nursing board about which agency nurses report to for these types of issues, although as indicated previously, I don't believe that I had to provide that at all - it was mostly for my own interest.

The assignment is completed.

for any nurses:

i am working on a challenge exercise for a nursing ethics class, and i have some questions in regards to this subject:

*to who or what agency does the nurse report, unethical or immoral behavior in a co-worker?

aside from the employers internal system, the state board of nursing exists to protect the public.

*same question for issues that a nurse may have in their own job in relation to ethical concerns or moral issues.

follow the american nurses association code of ethics for nurses and the state board of nursing.

*what action should you take, as a nurse, if you were to observe unethical or immoral behavior in a coworker?

internal company incident procedures and reporting as indicated by the state board of nursing. you should prevent or stop the unethical or immoral behavior in an appropriate legal manner.

*what action should you take, as a nurse, if you were to decide that the employer (such as a supervisor, or a hospital) was trying to make you participate in activities or working conditions which are unethical or immoral in nursing?

do not do the bad things. you are responsible. you need to follow company policy and procedures and you may need to involve the state board of nursing. you may want to seek clarification first, may just be a misunderstanding. you may need to quit, better to find a new job than risk your license.

the answers are clearly that it needs to be reported, and depending on the issue at hand, the nurse may refuse to participate in the immoral practice, but the book just says such things as [report to] "appropriate administrator", and "higher authority", and does not even specify any degree of appropriate procedure for handling these issue, let alone the name or designation of any of the agencies, professional positions, etc... involved in making a report, complaint, etc...

these are relevant to some questions that i have on my challenge exam, and essentially what i am looking for especially is to whom does the nurse report ethical concerns or make complaints or reports about these kinds of issues. this particular detail is apparently not necessary for the exam, and is not specified in the book "nurses code of ethics with interpretive statements", but i would like to be able to add something about this. i already tried getting in touch with the nurses association of veterans affairs, the veterans administration hospital, tempe st. lukes (all three of which were either unreachable or unhelpful) and of course the american nurses association, who i can not get in touch with at all by phone because of the three hour time difference, so i am trying here.

thank you for the help,

jeff a

i probably did not help much, but there are some broad answers to broad questions.

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