Reflection Essay
Nursing Ethics and Evidence-Based Practice

Rachel Lutz
Professional Nursing December 10, 2010

Throughout this course I have been able educate myself on many areas of nursing that involve more than just patient care. One area that I found particularly interesting was ethical principlism. Ethical principlism involves using a set of ethical principles to provide framework that will support moral behavior and decision making while caring for patients. (Masters, 2009, p.92) There are four principles that define this idea. These include autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Both beneficence and nonmaleficence go hand in hand to show how nurses truly work for the good of the patient. Beneficence …show more content…

As our future evolves nursing practice will constantly be changing. We must adapt to these changes to continue to provide quality care for patients. Nurses must continue to educate themselves around the most up to date research. By implementing evidence-based practice into our principles that guide us in how to provide proper care for the patients we might be able to eliminate some of the downfalls that we have in our current healthcare system. If we continue to develop methods on sterilization and decreasing nosocomial infections by evidence-based practice, and use these methods to work towards the well being of the patient our outcomes in the healthcare system could improve dramatically. We could also work towards using evidence based practice to guide our ethical dilemmas that may arise. If we are able to provide evidence-based proof during a conflict, this will increase nursing credibility and show that we are focused on providing the best care for our patients.
Overall the ethical principles discussed throughout this course will guide my ability to be an effective nurse. I am now able to understand why it is important to allow patients to be involved in their own plan of care. At the same time, I will know when I need to step up and implement my ideas for what I believe will provide the most benefit to the patient. I have