Chapter 09: Ethical and Bioethical Issues in Nursing and Health Care

Chapter 09: Ethical and Bioethical Issues in Nursing and Health Care

Complete Chapter Questions With Answers

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Ethics applied to nursing can best be defined as:

ANS:  C

Correct: Nursing ethics is a system of principles intended to guide the actions of the nurse in his or her relationships with clients, clients’ family members, other health care providers, policy makers, and society as a whole. A nurse must make an attempt to understand what values are inherent in the situation.

Incorrect:

1. “Doing what is best for the client” is not a definition of ethics.
2. “Making good decisions about care” is not a definition of ethics.
3. “Rules for providing competent care that is based on scientific principles” is not a definition of ethics.

DIF:    Knowledge     REF:   p. 168

2. A family requests that no additional heroic measures be instituted for their terminally ill mother who has advance directives in place. The nurse respects this decision in keeping with the principle of:

ANS:  B

Correct: Autonomy is the principle of respect for the individual person. Within the concept of autonomy, people are free to form their own judgments and perform whatever actions they choose. They are self-determining agents who are entitled to decide their own destiny.

Incorrect:

1. Accountability is inherent in the nurse’s ethical obligation to uphold the highest standards of practice and care, assume full personal and professional responsibility for every action, and commit to maintaining quality in the skill and knowledge base of the profession.
2. Nonmaleficence is a principle that implies a duty not to inflict harm. In ethical terms, it means to abstain from injuring others and to help others further their own well-being by removing harm and eliminating threats.
3. Veracity means telling the truth as a moral and ethical requirement.

DIF:    Application    REF:   p. 173; Table 9-1 | p. 174

3. An older adult client is comatose and had one electroencephalogram that indicated no activity. The daughter is very distraught and notices her mother’s hand moves when she is talking to her. The daughter asks the nurse, “Is mother responding to my voice?” The nurse, attempting to console the daughter, knows the movement was involuntary but states, “It does appear she did.” The nurse is violating which principle of ethics?

ANS:  B

Correct: Veracity is the principle of telling the truth in a given situation.

Incorrect:

1. Autonomy is the principle of respect for the individual person; this concept states that humans have incalculable worth or moral dignity.
2. Utilitarianism is an approach that is rooted in the assumption that an action or practice is right if it leads to the greatest possible balance of good consequences or to the least possible balance of bad consequences. Giving the daughter false reassurance is not a good consequence.
3. Deontological theory claims that a decision is right only if it conforms to an overriding moral duty and wrong only if it violates that moral duty. Persons are to be treated as ends in themselves and never as means to the ends of others.

DIF:    Application    REF:   p. 175

4. In attempting to decide which services should be offered to a community, the public health nurse decides to implement hypertension screening and treatment because most of the residents are hypertensive. This decision is based on the principle of:

ANS:  C

Correct: Utilitarianism is an approach that is rooted in the assumption that an action or practice is right if it leads to the greatest possible balance of good consequences or to the least possible balance of bad consequences. On the basis of this principle, an attempt is made to determine which actions will lead to the greatest ratio of benefit to harm for all persons involved in the situation.

Incorrect:

1. Veracity is defined as the moral and ethical requirement to always tell the truth in personal communication. Although the public health nurse did not lie, she did not use the concept of veracity to decide which health care issue to address with this group.
2. Values account for our moral decisions and actions. The nurse based the decision on the needs of the group, not on her personal values.
3. Respecting autonomy means respecting people’s right to make decisions based on their values. The nurse did not base her decision for this group on her respect for them, but on what the needs of the majority were.

DIF:     Application      REF:    p. 167 |p. 174