Nursing Ethical Dilemma Paper

Ethics refers to the study of situations that require practical reasoning. Ethical dilemmas are encountered in many instances of the nursing career. Therefore, some reasons determine particular ethical behaviors. For example, what individual regards as an ethical behavior may be considerably different from another person’s perception of the situation who may be applying a different approach. This situation results in moral distress that arises in the circumstances where a person is unable to decide on the ethical choices that may be available due to the various religious, moral as well as professional constraints (Amoah, 2016). This constraints influence actions that an individual can take or the way they believe is the right or wrong action to take.
This was a situation where the family of the patient chose to hold back truthful information from their hospice family member who was a patient that I was giving medical attention. The family withheld the information in an attempt to protect the hospice patient from having emotional distress. This situation posed a distressing ethical dilemma because I felt that the patient had the right to get all the information about his condition despite the fact that it was to lead to mental distress (Daugherty & Steensma, 2002. Expressing honesty in all situations was among my principle religious values that I upheld and honestly is among the main requirements in the nursing professional codes of conduct. However, on the other hand withholding this information was to enhance a happier and less stressful life in the last days of the life of the patient. The dilemma faced was in deciding the type of information that was to be shared with this patient and what was to be left out as well as how and when to share