As a nurse, we will see ethics in our every day life. From protecting a patients rights to privacy, to protecting their rights as a human being, even when it becomes second nature and we don’t notice it, nurses will constantly have a role in ethics. Reflecting back to the ethics class that I took last year, we were assigned to read “my sisters keeper” about a girl who was born to be her terminally ill sister’s “spare parts.” As the nurse in that situation I feel that I could empathize with both sides (the parents who want to save their ill child and the sibling that wants medical autonomy). The parents are doing everything they can to save their terminally ill child, but the child is upset having invasive procedures done for her sister when she is completely healthy.

In ethics, the nurses role is to support their patients and their families at their most vulnerable moments. It may be difficult at times to empathize if the patient makes a decision that the nurse herself would not make but by listening and providing the best care that they can, nurses contribute to ethical conduct. By involving research and evidence implementation, the nurse can provide the right education for the patient to make an educated and well thought out decision regarding their care. Every patient has the right to their own medical decisions but by providing that patient education and evidence to support the patient in making their medical decisions, the nurse plays a vital role in ethics in health care.