Bioethics and nursing

Today, more than ever, nurses and their patients need to keep pace with the technologic revolution in patient care. There are choices now in health care that patients or their caregivers in the past did not have to face. In making these ethical decisions, nurses rely on systematic problem solving, legal advice, ANA Code of Ethics, Nurse Practice Acts, Patient Bill of Rights, clergy, colleagues, and hospital protocols, along with the examination of their own ideals and morals. Ethics is a complex field, and one must look beyond the surface to examine the incidents in the order in which they occurred. In most situations, therefore, one must look past simplistic statements made about the case. After a detailed analysis, what becomes apparent is that the nurse is not necessarily in the wrong.