Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Northern Samar
Web: http://uep.edu.ph Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF NURSING AND ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

MODULES IN
HEALTH CARE ETHICS
NCM 108

RONA L. ALCERA

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 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Northern Samar
Web: http://uep.edu.ph Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF NURSING AND ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

NCM 108 HEALTH CARE ETHICS

Module I Theories of Healthcare Ethics

Overview

Welcome to module 1! You and I will study together the passageway of life’s
human conduct. As a result of new scientific and technological advances, economic
realities and global communications, every day you will be faced with challenging
decisions and will make it impossible for you to ignore vital ethical issues, given a
specific actual health and nursing scenarios and your individual lives. This module
intoduces key ethical theories from the tradition of Western philosophy that will
help you think and apply a sound ethical decision-making when confronted with an
ethical question given a specific actual health and nursing scenarios..Further, this
module is pre –requite to Ethics and Foundations of Nursing Practice.

Learning Outcomes

1. Integrate relevant principles of social, physical, natural, and health sciences

and humanities in a given health and nursing situation.
2. Apply the concepts of the different ethical theories in specific actual health
and nursing scenarios.
3. Demonstrate caring as the core of nursing practice, love of God, love of
country and love of people.
4. Manifest professionalism, integrity and excellence in specific actual health and
nursing scenarios.
5. Project the positive professional image of a Filipino nurse

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Pre –Test

Classify the statements below into the theories/approaches of health ethics , or

what may be considered the science, to ethical reasoning by writing the letter
of each statements the space provided.

Column A Column B

______1.the greatest good for the greatest A. Deontology

number of people
______2.the idea that people should be treated B. Utilitarianism
with dignity and respect
______3.considering what virtues make a good C. Virtue Ethics
punlic relations professionals
_____ 4. making a decision in light of those favored
virtues
_____ 5.making a decision based on what will
benefit the majority
_____ 6.identifying one’s duty and acting accordingly.
_____ 7.strongest model for applied public relations ethics
_____ 8.harming a minority and benefitting a majority
doesn’t built mutually beneficia relationships
_____9. misses the importance obligations to client and
public
_____10.the possibility of a conflict in virtues
_____11.there may be disagreement about the principles
involved in the decision.
_____12. it is not always possible to predict the ouycome
of the decision

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 1.1 Deontology

Let us now discusss the first theory in healtcare ethics, deontollogy.

Deontology reflects the way that things are done rather than concentrating just on
the consequences. This type of ethics holds at its core the respect for fundamental
rights, such as the right to truth, privacy and the fulfilling of promise. Further,
deontological ethics are non-consequentialist, which means that they place the
importance on the decision or action itself – on the motivations, principles, or ideals
underlying the decision or action – rather than being concerned with the outcomes or
consequences of that decision or action. This thinking is originated on the desirability
of principle (usually duties or rights) to act in a given situation. The two main non-
consequentialist theories are ethics of duties and ethics of rights and justice. Both of
these are established in assumptions about universal rights and wrongs and
responsibilities. This means that people usually believe that they should be applied
to everyone, everywhere..

Now, in your recall of what you have just read,please answer the following
activity.Reward yourself for all correct answers. Should you miss to answer some
items completely, do not worry. All you need is to go over the text one more time and
will soon master it. Let’s go!

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Activity 1 .
1. Read, Article 2: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and identify at
least ten rights which you think that all individuals have.
Article 2: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Source: UN (2012)
‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional
or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs,
whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of
sovereignty.

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1.1.Review the list of human rights that you identified. Do you have a duty to
uphold any of these rights for anyone else?

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1.2. Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism reflects an action as morally right if its effects or consequences

are good for the greatest number of the population. It emphases on ‘the greatest
good for the greatest number’. This theory disrespects individual rights and reflects
the welfare of the greatest majority to be the most significant aspect.

There are three main concerns on utilitarian ethics to make decisions.

First, rather than looking at the choice or action itself, decision-makers are
forced to guess the potential outcomes of their choice in order to determine what is
ethical.

Second, utilitarian ethics also “presents questions of conflict with regard to

which segment of society should be considered most important” in weighing the
“good” or outcome.

Third objection is that it is not always possible to predict the outcome of an

action.

With this discussion,let us see how much you have learned by doing the
activity below.

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Activity 2: Shipwreck situation

Imagine that you are involved in a shipwreck situation - a ship has started to sink
in the middle of the ocean. Eleven people have jumped into a life-boat that has
been designed for a maximum of ten people only, and the life-boat is also starting
to sink. What should the passengers do? Throw one person overboard and save
ten lives? Or stick to the principle of "do not kill", which means that everybody will
drown?

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1.1 Virtue ethics

A virtue ethics in nursing is concerned with the character of individual nurses

and looks ways to enable nurses to change nurses traits suitable for actions that
increase wellbeing. Virtue ethics moves the analytical importance away from rule-
based decision-making (of deontological ethics) or of the consequences of an action
(eg in utilitarianism) towards the ethics of individuals and the ethics of human
character. It require the decision-maker to recognize what virtues are good for public
relations and then decisions are made in light of those particular virtues. For
example, if the virtue of honesty is the of greatest importance to a good public
relations professional, then all decisions should be made ethically to ensure honesty
is preserved.

Based on the ancient contribution of Aristotle (384 to 322 BC), virtue ethics
provides a more holistic approach to ethics. Stewart highlights the following
characteristics of virtue ethics:

 It is concerned with the person or agent behind the actions, rather than the
actions themselves.
 It considers aspects like emotions, attitudes, habits and lifestyle as morally
relevant - the way you are, rather than simply what you do, can be classified
as good or bad.
 It argues that life is too complex to be guided by strict rules that dictate how
we should act.
 It is holistic - it examines the purpose of life rather than individual moments.
 It promotes the virtues as being beneficial to the owner: "Being virtuous is
good because it's good for you" (Stewart, 2009 p. 56).

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 Actvity 3
Do you consider yourself to be a ‘good nursing student? What virtues do
you generally demonstrate in your actions and in the decisions you take?

Were you able to answer all questions correctly? Continue the good work

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Key Terms

deontology, ethics, morality, utilitarianism, virtue ethics

Feedback

You have just done Module 1. How did you find with the activities, I am pretty
sure all your answers are correct. You will recall that this module is about the
theories of healthcare ehics. Let us live by these theories and guide our acts of
providing safe and quality nursing care to our patients in varied setting and in our
everyday life. I bid you good-bye for now and will go to Module 2.

Summary

In this module you learned about the most relevant ethical theories for your
professional practice as a BSN student. All three major Western ethical theories
have strengths and inadequacies. There is no long-established "best theory" and as
a nursing student you will have your own preferences and make your own choices.
This Western ethical theories are called utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics.
Utilitarianism considers an action as morally right if its outcomes or consequences
are good for the greatest number. Deontology considers duty above the
consequences or outcomes of any action and gives priority to respect for
fundamental rights, Virtue ethics considers what virtues make a good public relations
professionals. Moreover,you will now have an appreciation of the multiplicity of this
field and responsiveness of some of the ways in which ethical theories are used and
applied in your everyday life as a nursing student.. It is vital and valuable to have an
understanding of the ethical theory in order to improve more nuanced and
sophisticated ideas about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in these significant areas of
everyday life.

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References

American Nurses Association: Center for Ethics and Human Rights

http//www.nursingworld.org/ethics.

Beauchamp,T.L. and Childress,J.F. (2001). Principles of Biomedical ethics

95th ed). New York: Oxford University Press.

Bioethics, 2nd edition, edited by Lewis Vaughn (2013), Oxford University

Press. ISBN: 9780199796236

Butts, J., Rich, K.(2013). Nursing ethics: across the curriculum and into
practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Center for Social Justice http;//cenetrfor socialjustice.org

Chesnay, M., Anderson, B. (2012). Caring for the vulnerable: perspectives in

nursing theory,practice and research. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

CMO No. 15, Series of 2017 - Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program

De Belen. Rustico T., (2007), Significant Laws, Rules and Regulations and
Standards of Nursing Practice, C and E Publishing,

Gasper D (2009) Development Ethics and Human Development. HD Insights,

HDR Networks Issue 24, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Available from: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HD_Insights_January2009.pdf

International Council for Nurses (2006). The ICN code of ethics for nurses.
Geneva,Switzerland; Author. Retrieved from http://www.icn.ch/icncode.pdf
Solomon, R., Martin, C., Vaught, W. (2008). Morality and the Good Life: An
Introduction to Ethics through Classical Sources.McGraw-Hill.
Stewart, Noel (2009). Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. Cambridge:
Polity Press

TED (2009) Gordon Brown on Global Ethic vs. National Interest. Video.
Duration 17.03 minutes. Available from:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/gordon_brown_on_global_ethic_vs_national_inter
est.html

Venzon, Lydia et. al, (2009), Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 Professional
Nursing in the Philippines, 10th ed., C and E Publishing

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