NURS 2103: Introduction to Professional Nursing: Ethical Issues

EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF ETHICAL DILEMMAS:

• Abortion
• Artificial hydration and feeding
• Anti vaccines
• Birth control
• Capacity or Competence
• Confidentiality
• Cultural Issues
• Cultural diversity
• Decision Making Capacity Challenges
• Difficult Hospital Inpatient Discharge Decisions:  Ethical Legal and Clinical
• Disabled and ADA legal compliance      
• Disclosing Medical Conditions
• Domestic or family violence
• Ethical and Legal Issues Generated by the HIV epidemic
• Ethical Issues During Disaster
• Futile care or aggressive interventions
• Genomics and genetics testing
• Incivility (disruptive, bullying, sexual harassment, horizontal lateral violence)
• Incompetence among peers
• Informed Consent
• LGBTQ Patient Care
• Legal and Ethical Issues in Family Caregiving
• Long term care jurisprudence and legislation
• Malpractice
• Medical Hold Process for Patients Determined Medically to Lack Capacity
• Medication (error) issues
• Nursing documentation and record keeping
• Opioid crisis
• Pain management and medication
• Palliative Care:  Ethical Issues
• Paternalism
• Patient Advocacy
• Patient Compliance or Adherence
• Patient Discharge Standards
• Patient safety
• Physician Assisted Suicide
• Practice Decisions
• Psychiatric nursing care of the patient who is suicidal
• Rationing of care
• Restraints
• Research, human rights, and ethical issues
• Rights of conscience
• Sexual health and insurance coverage
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Social Justice
• Social Media
• Surrogate decision making
• Terminal or End of Life Care 
• Undocumented or illegal immigrants
• Utilitarianism 
• Vaccine mandates for patients and/or providers
• Whistle blowing
• Work Environment
•  Workplace issues:  Bullying, Lack of Communication, staffing

There are several excellent databases to search for the topic of ethical issues in nursing.  CINAHL and Health Source Nursing: Academic are two examples in addition to PubMed and Health & Medical Collection.  Most databases provide several types of search options. You can use a subject search (including MESH Medical Subject Headings) or a combination of subjects and keywords. The subject searches are always the most precise, but they can also "miss" some items that would have been retrieved in a keyword search.

Useful subject headings for these databases are:

• ETHICS, NURSING
• ETHICS, PROFESSIONAL
• NURSING ETHICAL ISSUES
• NURSING CARE ETHICAL ISSUES

This subject heading can be combined with keywords or Select Field search terms.  For example, some of the following might apply:

• palliative care
• ethics or ethical
• dilemmas or issues
• pediatric nursing or critical care
• patient safety

If you choose, you can also search using keywords or keyword combinations instead of subject headings.

• Ethical Dilemmas       AND          quality of care
• Ethics                          AND          pain management
• Ethical issues            AND           work environment
• nursing ethics           AND           confidentiality 
• Ethics                         AND           social justice