ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN RESPIRATORY THERAPY AND NURSING PRACTICE: BALANCING PATIENT AUTONOMY AND CARE

Abstract

Medical professionals face a unique professional obligation to consider and advocate for the needs and rights of the individuals to whom they provide care, while adhering to the principles and purposes of their respective professions. The goals and interventions of these professions aim to benefit individuals in varied and specific ways related to health and quality of life. The medical professions have unique knowledge, skills, and empirical access to important human needs such as health and bodily function. In part, it is these unique responsibilities to society and the sum total of lived human experiences and needs that place constraints and limits on the exercise of autonomy and freedom of individual healthcare practitioners. In the present discussion, we consider some collisions and synergies between the ethical principles of beneficence and autonomy in the specific context of the disciplines of nursing and respiratory therapy. (Looi et al.2021)

Providing medical care and support is for individuals a deeply personal and often intimate experience. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, nursing personnel work with individuals and their families in almost every segment of humanity on the planet, caring for the health status of people at all developmental stages from birth to death. Modern Western medicine also makes great use of technological devices and interventions in diagnosing and treating patients. As nurses and nursing care have evolved through time, even though priorities have changed, nursing has always adhered to an ethic of care, where the welfare and dignity of patients are central to nursing practice. Consequently, nursing students learn early in their education that healthcare is delivered to individuals, and nursing interventions are taught as person- and individual-centered. Nurses have much individual contact with patients and a deep commitment to individual, bedside care. Modern nurses as agents and advocates of patients' well-being reflect beneficence. However, just as nurses' commitment to beneficence is deep, nursing professionals are also committed to helping patients exercise decision-making freedom and self-determination. Thus, the ethical principle of autonomy balances the principle of beneficence in many nursing activities. (Cheraghi et al.2023)