Mental Health - Nursing Ethical Dilemma: Essay Sample

Nurses, especially psychiatric nurses, are often faced with many ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas refer to problems precisely when there are two or more ethical values; the issues lack an apparent solution (Aydin et al., 2017). Therefore, ethical problems can only be solved by analyzing the different points of view to arise with a solution. Ethical dilemmas, especially in nursing difficulties, occur because the decisions to be made cannot be based on intuition because there are no wrong decisions. Therefore, decisions can only be made through discretion and a thorough evaluation of ethical principles. Unresolved ethical problems can lead to frustration and desperation, thus leading to patient care compromises, burnout, and also lack of motivation to work.

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The main ethical dilemmas that mental health nurses face are the use of restraint, seclusion, having to deprive patients of their freedom and liberty, dealing with patients who fail to adhere to instructions and physician demands (Aydin et al., 2017). Nurses practicing mental health face ethical problems mainly because the patients under their care have little knowledge regarding the diseases they are suffering from and the appropriate treatments (Aydin et al., 2017). Due to this, nurses must violate the autonomy of their patients due to their inability to make informed decisions.

Studies indicate that psychiatrist nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas when having to make choices on seclusion and restraint of patients (Aydin et al., 2017). In mental health hospitals, various situations require that a patient is restrained. Such decisions must be made quickly based on the justification through ethical principles and benefits to patients. Moreover, mental health nurses also encounter dilemmas due to inappropriate demands from physicians who require them to implement unnecessary procedures on the patients (Weimand et al., 2013).In other cases, nurses violated the justice principle in the practice conduct due to physicians' demand that they perform different procedures for patients with similar conditions.

Mental health nurses also experience dilemmas when giving the patient's family confidential information without the patient's consent; this violates their privacy rights. The nurses have to make such decisions because of the state of their patients. Often, psychiatric patients are forcefully given treatment without their consent raising ethical issues. However, the ethical issue requires that the nurse makes a decision on whether to respect privacy autonomy or focus on beneficence. It is important that nurses use a lot of discretion and use a sound ethical decision-making model.

In normal medical practice, patients have a right to make decisions on treatment. However, in some cases such as in mental facilities, patients may fail to agree to treatment procedures; therefore, it is done involuntarily. However, this does not justify compulsory treatment. Ethical issues have also arised when psychiatric patients are used for research; this is a crucial ethical problem in mental health nursing. Nurses have to take care of patients who are admitted for research without their consent. This violates patient autonomy.

In conclusion, mental health nurses experience distinct challenges that are not experienced by other nurses. These nurses encounter many problems, especially regarding patient's consent, violation of privacy rights, unnecessary treatment procedures, which tend to inflict pain, restraint, and seclusion. It is, therefore necessary, that these nurses are educated on how to deal with these ethical problems when they arise.

References

Aydin Er, R., & Ersoy, N. (2017). Ethical problems experienced by Nurses who work in psychiatry clinics in Turkey. Journal of Psychiatric Nursing ,8(2). 10.14744/phd.2017.97720

Weimand, B. M., Sällström, C., Hall-Lord, M. L., & Hedelin, B. (2013). Nurses' dilemmas concerning support of relatives in mental health care. Nursing Ethics, 20(3), 285-299. doi/abs/10.1177/0969733012462053