Author Question: The nurse is providing patient care and pays special attention to meeting the needs of the patient ... (Read 29 times)

mrsjacobs44 · **on:** Jul 23, 2018

The nurse is providing patient care and pays special attention to meeting the needs of the patient while maintaining the patient's right to privacy, confidentiality, autonomy, and dignity. This nurse is applying what ethical theory?

a. Deontology
b. Utilitarianism
c. Autonomy
d. Accountability

Question 2

Nurses are consistently considered to be honest and ethical professionals by most respondents in an annual Gallup poll. This is because professional nurses understand that ethics are:

a. internal values developed outside the influence of societal norms.
b. influenced by family, friends, and socioeconomics, among other variables.
c. societal in nature and do not involve personal influences.
d. totally independent from a person's character.

josephsuarez · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 23, 2018

Answer to Question 1

ANS: A
Deontology is an ethical theory that stresses the rightness or wrongness of individual behaviors, duties, and obligations without concern for the consequences of specific actions. Meeting the needs of patients while maintaining their right to privacy, confidentiality, autonomy, and dignity is consistent with the tenets of deontology. Compared with deontology, utilitarianism is on the opposite end of the ethical theory continuum. Utilitarianism maintains that behaviors are determined to be right or wrong solely on the basis of their consequences. Autonomy, or self-determination, is the freedom to make decisions supported by knowledge and self-confidence. Accountability is the willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: B
Family, friends, beliefs, education, culture, and socioeconomic status influence the development of ethical behavior. The study of ethics considers the standards of moral conduct in a society. Personal ethics are influenced by values, societal norms, and practices. Behaviors that are judged as ethical or unethical, right or wrong, reflect a person's character.