Upholding Ethics and Personal Values in Care Provision

Introduction

The effective delivery of care services to the service users by abiding with ethics is required to provide respectful, dignified and legally approved care. In relation to personal values, it is seen that the social structure and culture of the individuals influence the values possessed by them. Thus, to provide effective care to the service users the personal values are required to be properly controlled so that they do not create differences in enacting way of provided service to the service users by the service providers. In the current nursing home setting, it is seen that the service providers influences by their personal values are enacting in such a way so that work ethics and respect of the service users are not ensured. Thus, in this assignment, core ethics and personal values to be underpinned while providing care are discussed according to given scenario. Moreover, factors that have influenced the personal values and ethics of the service providers are discussed and the professionalism is to be ensured at the workplace is explained.

Task 1

Core ethics and values underpinning care in the setting

During the team meeting at the nursing home setting, it is seen that the manager of the head office has complained that the staffs are not providing respectful care to the service users. As per NMC Code of Conduct, under the domain of "Prioritise People" it is mentioned that it is the duty of the nurses to offer care services in a respectful, dignified and compassionate manner to the service users (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is because it would make them feel being properly cared for boosting them to develop better health outcomes by accepting care without complaining. Thus, care services are to be provided by the nurses in the settings by respecting the service users so that they feel dignified and satisfied with the care services.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 informs that the integration of healthcare services is to be made in such a way so that the service users receive care in a respectful manner and experience reduction of any unnecessary costs related with healthcare (www.legislation.gov.uk, 2012). This aspect of the Act is to be underpinned in the care services within the nursing home so that no more complains of lack of respect towards the service users are received. The Care Act 2014 informs that the local authorities are to provide effective care services to the service users by assessing and identifying their needs to ensure their well-being (www.legislation.gov.uk, 2014). The care to be provided in the nursing home of the scenario is to be arranged by underpinning the guidance of the Act. This is because it would lead the service providers to meet the demands and needs of the service users, in turn, respecting their preferences of care.

In the meeting, the second scenario informs that a nurse who is a lay preacher was shocked when her colleagues wanted to refer social services because her husband beats their son when he becomes naughty. As asserted by Adams and Frugé (2017), certain parents and others think that beating a child for their naughtiness is torture. This is because those individuals perceive that beating is equal to physical abuse that makes the child feel depressed and be feared which also has a negative impact on their socialising behaviour. As argued by Afifi et al. (2016), beating a child when they are naughty is general way implemented by the parents to teach their child what is right or wrong. This is because they think that punishment makes the child fear to again execute the same mistake, in turn, helping them to become better person in society. Thus, this aspect informs that personal values vary among individuals and service providers which influence them to take decision that may be wrong or right.

In the present situation, the service providers who have taken the decision of referring social services require at first evaluate the condition of the child personally without any interference of their personal values to fairly determine whether the beating is amounting to physical abuse. This is because interference of personal values may make service users take wrong decision as each individual’s perception and values vary as per their culture and society (Unger-Aviram and Erez, 2016). It is evident as the act executed may be out of strictness by the parent and not with the intention to abuse the child which due to influence of personal values of the colleagues of the nurse may lead them to think that it is physical abuse. This would lead them to take wrong decision to waste resource in engaging social services to protect the child which is not even required.

The third agenda of the meeting was that an elderly patient reported entrusting Nadine who is a British Pakistani for her care because the dress of other nurses is offensive and immoral to her. The NMC Code of Conduct informs that the patients are to be provided care as per their demands and needs so that they feel satisfied to show positive health outcome (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). As per the guidance of the code, the nurses require to fulfil the need of the patients regarding her carer to be Nadine so that she is satisfied to receive care and show better health outcome. The FREDA principles inform that the rights of the individuals are to be protected in clinical as well as organisational practice by abiding with the core values of respect, equality, autonomy and dignity (www.dwmh.nhs.uk, 2018). The autonomy is referred to the condition in which the individual is offered the ability to make their personal decision (Hess et al. 2015). Thus, the care services require underpinning the aspect of autonomy in offering care within the nursing home according to which the Pakistani lady’s request of making Nadine take care of her is to be fulfilled. This required as it would lead the service users to feel valued of her opinion at the nursing home making her feel dignified and respected which helps to fulfil another principle of FREDA.

The Principles of Public Life informs about seven principles which are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership that are to be abided by the holders of public offices in offering care to the service users. The selflessness aspect of the principle informs that it is the duty of the holders of the public offices to act in the best interest of the public (www.gov.uk, 1995). In the present scenario, it is seen that fulfilling the wish of the Pakistani service user to access care from Nadine would be for her best interest. This is because the service users have limited knowledge of English and Nadine being fluent in Urdu as well as being culturally similar would be able to provide better care by understand her needs and demands clearly without creating any communication issue or violation of cultural values.

Task 2

Discussing factors which have influenced the personal ethics and values held by people in discussion during team meeting

There are certain factors such as social, individual and organisational factors which influence the personal values and ethics of the people involved in discussion during the team meeting. The individual factors such as values, morals, knowledge and others influence ethical behaviour (Dehghani et al. 2015). This is evident from the first case in the meeting where the staffs due to lack of knowledge about the importance and way of providing dignified care resulted the manager to receive complaints of lack of respect by the staffs towards the patients. As mentioned by Moyo et al. (2016), personal values are referred to the individual judgement made by people to take correct decision. These values vary among different people due to their different perception, lack of knowledge and fear. This is because without proper knowledge along with fear makes individuals to be unable to determine which of their values are correct to judge the situation to make ethically correct decision (Yang et al. 2016). This is evident as in the second situation within the nursing home it is seen that the colleagues of the nurse without having knowledge of the actual condition of the child that leads to his beating have irresponsibly thought of involving the social services which may not be needed. Moreover, they fear that the child may be hurt also lead them to take the decision which may not be right as the father may be beating him for his own good without any intention of causing harm or physical abuse as thought by the colleagues of the nurse.

The ethical dilemma is referred to the situation in which it is difficult for a person to identify which of the choices to be made in making final decision as either of them transgresses a moral principle (Ganz et al. 2015). In the nursing home setting, the third situation may have raised ethical dilemma in development of personal values and ethics among the nurses. This is because the choice of not providing Nadine as the carer for the Pakistani patients would violate the NMC Code that indicates the nurses to act in best interest of the service users and respect their preferences to ensure dignified care. However, accepting the choice of the Pakistani patient within the care setting may raise discrimination in the workplace. This is evident in the sense that even other nurses being capable to take care for the patient yet Nadine is provided opportunity of care just because she belongs from the same culture who may be less experienced and efficient in comparison to them. The social factors such as cultural norms are seen to influence ethical behaviour as the individual take decision which is ethically correct based on the learned cultural values in the society (Barsky, 2019). The third situation discussed within the meeting informs that the Islamic values and cultural norms may have lead the Pakistani patient to wish to access care from Nadine only creating discriminatory attitude towards other nurses in the nursing home setting.

Task 3

Discussing the way to professionally resolve the raised issues

Professional boundaries are referred to the essential considerations in relationship that happens between the professional and their client (Fronek and Kendall, 2017). The boundaries are required to be applied in the nursing home setting discussed so that the issues being currently faced can be resolved. As asserted by Erikson and Davies (2017), the professionals require knowing their values and avoiding their influence in making decision by setting boundaries. This is because the influence of personal values may lead the service providers to take wrong decision that may not be ethically correct for the client. This is evident in the second situation where the colleagues of the nurse require creating boundaries of their personal values. It is required so that they can judge in an impartial manner whether or not in true sense the child of the nurse requires intervention of social services to avoid beating from his father.

The nursing professionals require communicate clearly with the clients to maintain professional boundaries (Banks, 2016). This is because clear communication would lead the nurses to understand the way respect and dignified care to the service users. In order to resolve the raised issues in the nursing home, the nurses are to be provided training regarding cultural competences and sensitivity. This is because this training helps the nurses’ act and care for the patients as per their cultural values and preferences (Govere and Govere, 2016). Thus, it is going to resolve the issue created by Pakistani patient for care preference towards a single nurse. The nurses in the settings are to be trained regarding the way to meet the code of conduct. This is because it would help to resolve the issue of disrespectful behaviour towards service users as the knowledge of the code of conduct would educate nurses to understand the way they are to perform care services so that the dignity of the patient is ensured at the setting. The nurses are also required to be trained to develop knowledge regarding policies and procedures because it helps them to take legally and ethically correct decision (Perez et al. 2018).

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that Health and Social Care Act 2012, Safeguarding Act 2014 and NMC Code of practices are violated in the first situation explained in the team meeting in relation to the nursing home. In the second situation, it is seen that the influence of personal values of the nurses has influences in making decision that may be wrong. In the third situation, it is seen that ethical dilemma and cultural competency issues may have created problem for the nurses to ensure proper care. In order to resolve the situation, proper professional boundaries are to be developed by the nurses and they are to be given training in the aspect of cultural competency and sensitivity, health and safety, code of conduct and others.

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