Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
RESOURCE UNIT IN
NURSING ETHICS & JURISPRUDENCE
NF Cañizares, BSN, RN, MAN
NURSING ETHICS
Main Concept:
• Nursing Ethics is concerned with the principles and right conduct as they apply to
the nursing profession. It reinforces the nurses’ ideals and motives in order to
maximize the affectivity of their service.
• Nursing Jurisprudence is that department of law which comprises all the legal rules
and principles affecting the practice of nursing. It also includes the interpretation of
all these rules and principles and their application to the regulation of the practice of
nursing.
Course Objectives:
At the end of 20 hours, the students should:
1. Be sensitive to ethical considerations and face ethical issues and responsibility in
health care, community work, and public issues.
Specifically, the student will be able to:
a. Explain bioethical concepts and principles and integrate them in
clinical practice.
b. Apply the steps in ethical decision-making when given an ethical
issue
c. Analyze common bioethical issues affecting nursing practice
2. Be able to integrate a basic understanding of nursing law, develop skills in the
application of legal, ethico-moral principles in nursing practice and recognize the
importance of these principles in the nursing profession.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Profession – an occupation or calling requiring advance training and experience
in some specific or specialized body of knowledge which provides service to
society in that specific field.
2. Vocation – an occupation of calling.
3. Ethics – refers to a standard to examine and understand moral life.
4. Morality – refers to social consensus about moral conduct for human beings and
society.
5. Professional Ethics – a branch of moral science concerned with the obligations
that a member of the profession owes to the public.
6. Health Care Ethics – the division of ethics that relates to human health.
7. Bio-Ethics – a specific domain of ethics that focuses on moral issues in the field of
health care.
8. Nursing Ethics – related to all the principles of right conduct as they apply to the
profession.
9. Nursing Profession – the performance for a fee, salary or other reward or
compensation or professional nursing service to individuals, families and
communities in various stages of development. The promotion of health,
prevention of diseases, restoration of health and alleviation of suffering thru:
• Utilization of Nursing Process
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A. Autonomy
• Comes from the Greek word “autos” meaning self and “nomos” meaning
governance.
• It involves self-determination and freedom to choose and implement one’s
decision, free from deceit, duress, constraint or coercion.
B. Veracity
• To maximize the efficiency of health care, the patient and the health care
providers are bound to tell the truth.
• The patient has the responsibility to provide, to the best of his knowledge,
accurate and complete information about his complaints, past illness,
1. Importance:
It strongly emphasizes the four-fold responsibility of nurse, the universality
of the nursing practice, the scope of their responsibilities to the people they
serve, to their co-workers, to society and environment, and to their
profession.
2. Brief History:
a. 1982
• The Philippine Nurses Association Special Committee, under the
chairmanship of Dean Emeritus Julita V. Sotejo, developed a Code of Ethics
for Filipino nurses.
b. 1984
• The Board of Nursing, Professional Regulation Commission adopted the
Code of Ethics of the International Council for Nurses through Board
Resolution No. 633 adding “promotion of spiritual environment” as the fifth-
fold responsibility of the nurse.
• This was enforced up to 1989.
c. 1989
• The Code of Ethics promulgated by the Philippine Nurses Association was
approved by the Professional Regulation Commission and through Board
Resolution No. 1955 was recommended for use.
• This was approved by the general assembly of the Philippine Nurses
Association during the Nurses Week convention on October 25, 1990.
b. The Code was adopted under Republic Act 9173 and promulgated by the
Board of Nursing under Resolution No. 220 Series of 2004 last July 14, 2004.
PRINCIPLES:
1. Nurses and People
2. Nurses and Practice
3. Nurses and Co-Workers
4. Nurses and the Society
a. Contributing members of the society
b. Awareness for the call for change
5. Nurses and the Profession
6. Responsibility of the Nurse to Patient
7. Responsibility of the Nurse to the Physician
8. Responsibility of the Nurse to her Colleagues
9. Responsibility of the nurse toward themselves
THE ICN CODE FOR NURSES [2006] & THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES IN NURSING
PATIENT’S RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Providing information
2. Complying with instructions
3. Informing the physician of refusal to treatment
4. Paying hospital charges
5. Following hospital rules and regulations
6. Showing respect and consideration
• Section 28(a) of RA 9173 states that: It shall be the duty of the nurse to:
(a) Provide nursing care through utilization of the nursing process. Nursing care
includes, but not limited to, traditional and innovative approaches, therapeutic and
innovative approaches, therapeutic use of self, executing health care techniques
and procedures, comfort measures, health teachings, and administration of written
prescription for treatment, therapies, oral, topical and parental medications,
internal examination during labor in the absence of antenatal bleeding and
delivery. In case of suturing or perineal laceration, special training shall be
provided according to protocol established.
MORAL PRINCIPLES
1. The Golden Rule
2. The Two-fold Effect
3. The Principle of Totality
4. Epikia
5. One who acts through an agent is himself responsible
6. No one is obliged to betray himself/herself
7. The end does not justify the means
8. Defects of nature may be corrected
9. If one is willing to cooperate in the act, no justice is done to him/her
10.A little more or less does not change the substance of an act
11.The greatest good for the greatest number
12.No one is held to the impossible
13.The morality of cooperation
14.Principle relating to the origin and destruction of life
It is based on the biblical story of a man who aided an injured person who was
waylaid by thieves and was left half-dead. A nurse, therefore, who renders first aid or
treatment at the scene of an emergency and who does so within the standard of care,
acting in good faith, is relieved of the consequences of the act.
JURISPRUDENCE
A. Definition of Terms
1. Law – the sum total of rules and regulations by which society is governed.
2. Jurisprudence – the science of law.
3. Nursing Jurisprudence – that department of law which comprises all the legal
rules and principles affecting the practice of nursing. It also includes the
interpretation of all these rules and principles and their application to the
regulation of the practice of nursing.
4. Plaintiff – the party to a civil suit who brings the suit seeking damages or other
legal relief; complainant. (ACCUSER)
5. Defendant – (In criminal case) the person accused of committing a crime; (In civil
suit) the party against whom suit is brought demanding that he pays the other
party legal relief.
6. Subpoena – a court order requiring one to appear in court to give testimony.
7. Summons – a notice to a defendant ordering him to speak in a court at a specified
time and date to answer a complaint against him.
8. Witness – one who is called to give testimony in a court of law.
9. Felony – a crime of a serious nature usually punishable for a period of longer than
one year or by death.
10.Principal – a person who takes direct part in the execution of the act.
11.Accomplice - those people who not being principals, cooperate in execution of the
offense by previous simultaneous acts.
12.Legal Right – a right or claim which can be enforced by legal means against the
person of the community.
13.Jurisdiction – the legal right or authority of a court to hear and decide on a legal
case or controversy.
14.Legislation – the act or process of making laws.
CLASSIFICATION OF LAWS:
Republic Act No. 2493 dated February 5, 1915 – The first law affecting the practice of
nursing in the Philippines. It consists of two sections:
a. Sec. 7 – states that every person desiring to practice nursing in the Philippines
shall apply to the Director of Health for a Certificate of registration as a nurse.
b. Sec. 8 – states that it shall be unlawful for any person to practice as a nurse in
any of its branches in the Phil. until the proper certificate of registration has been
obtained.
This is also an act that provides for the examination and registration of nurses in the
Philippines.
Republic Act No. 2808 dated March 1, 1919 – an act regulating the practice of nursing
profession in the Philippines otherwise known as the Nursing Law (this is first considered
as the first Nursing Law).
Significance of this Law
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• The first board of examinees for nurses was created composed of three
members appointed by the Secretary of Interior (one doctor of medicine as
chairman and two members who are registered nurses, had experience in the
nursing profession for at least five years of reputable character)
Republic Act No. 4007 dated December 5, 1931 (Reorganization Law) – took effect the
conduct of board examination and placed the direct supervision of the Bureau of Civil
Service.
NURSING LAWS PASSED IN JUNE 1950
Cognizant of the complexities in the Nursing Profession on 1970, the nursing leader mad
steps to re-align the nursing law a tuned times. The following event took place:
1975 – Dean JV Sotejo called on then Pres. Marcos for the revision of the Nursing
Law to enable nurses to practice more effectively and with legal protection with in
the framework of an expanding and changing health care delivery system (this did
not materialized).
July 1977 – Dr. R. Diamante worked for the decree instituting a professional
regulation code and the proposed amendments of the Nursing Law.
May 13, 1982 – Coping of the propose amendment of the Philippine Nursing Act
of 1982 was submitted to health minister Azurin for him to sponsor at Batasan
Pambansa.
These events laid the foundation for RA 7164 with Senator Heherson Alvarez as primary
sponsor. It was finally passed in the lower house and appraisal in November 21, 1991 by
Pres. Corazon Aquino “Nursing as a dynamic profession continues to seek ways and
means to make it more responsive and relevant. This is the prime motive for the birth of
RA 9173 – sponsored by Hon. Carlos M. Padilla of the House of Representatives. Said bill
was approved on the third meeting by the low House on August 22, 2000 but was not
acted upon by the Senate.
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The counterpart bill in the Senate (SB No. 2292) with Senator Flavier as sponsor. The BM
and PNA and Legislation Committee worked and put the bill in its final form. The Pres.
GM Arroyo during the 80th Anniversary of the Nurses Week celebration on October 21,
2002 in Manila Midtown Hotel.
RA 9173 October 21, 2002 – an act providing for a more responsive nursing
profession repealing for the purpose RA # 7164, otherwise known as the Philippine
Nursing Act of 1991.
Reference for RA 9173 – Primer of RA 9173, Twelfth Congress, Second Regular Session –
Board of Nursing Resolution No. 425, Series of 2003, Implementing Rules and Regulation
of the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.
TORTS
– a legal wrong, committed against a person or property independent of a contract
which renders the person who commits it liable for damages in a civil action.
Examples of Torts:
CLASSIFICATION OF FELONY:
A. According to Degree of the acts of Execution:
1. Consummated – when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present.
2. Frustrated – when the offender performs all the acts or execution which will
produce the felony as a consequence but which nevertheless, do not produce it
by reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
3. Attempt – when the offender commences the commission of the same directly
overt (open or manifest) acts, and does not perform all the acts or execution
which shall produce the felony, by reason of some cause or accident other than
his own spontaneous desistance.
Simple Imprudence – when the person or nurse did not use precaution and
the damage was immediate or the impending danger was not evident or
manifest.
REFERENCES:
1. Lydia M. Venzon, RN, MAN, PhD, FPCHA and Ronald M. Venzon
Professional Nursing in the Philippines
11th Edition, C&E Publishing Corp., 2010
10th Edition, C&E Publishing Corp., 2005
2. Rustico T. De Belen and Donna Vivian De Belen
Nursing Law, Jurisprudence & Professional Ethics
1st Edition, C&E Publishing Corp., 2007
3. DOH Nursing Service Manual, 2005
4. Kozier, Erb, Berman and Snyder
Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice
8th Edition, C&E Publishing Corp
5. Commission on Higher Education CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) no. 14,
S. 2009
6. Commission on Higher Education CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) no. 30,
S. 2001