Competencies Reflection

Identify ethical dilemmas encountered in professional nursing practice:

Nurses face many medical dilemmas in their nursing practice. Nurses must be guided by ethical principles to solve these dilemmas. This course has taught me that it is inevitable that a nurse will encounter ethical dilemmas in their daily practice. I have learned that to handle these challenging situations, I can rely on the ANA Nurses’ Code of Ethics to guide me in these challenging times. This course has taught me the importance of ensuring informed consent in nursing care. Informed consent ensures that the patients and their families have been given complete information to make an informed decision (Axson et al., 2017).

Describe the ethical theories and principles influencing healthcare decisions.

This course has enabled me to learn about the ethical theories which affect decision-making in healthcare. These theories include Kantian absolutism and moral relativism, among others (Amer, 2019). I have learned of the ethical principles affecting decision-making in healthcare. There are four such principles. Autonomy respects the patient’s ability to make informed consent concerning their treatment (Amer, 2019). The principle of beneficence ensures that the healthcare professional provides care intended to bring positive outcomes (Amer, 2019). The principle of nonmaleficence ensures that healthcare providers do not intentionally cause harm to patients (Amer, 2019). The final principle is justice, which ensures fairness and equity in treatment (Amer, 2019)

Explain the inter-dependency of genetics, genomics, and ethics in nursing care.

There are a lot of controversies surrounding the use of genomics in the modern. I have learned that these controversies have also spilled to the healthcare delivery industry. This competency has enabled me to learn of the ethical controversies that surround genetic data. An example is how genetic data for individuals with a risk of developing genetic information can be denied medical insurance. I learned of this when I completed the assignment that our instructor gave. I believe that it is the duty of the nurse to uphold the integrity of the patient’s genetic information to ensure there is fairness and equity when offering nursing care.

Describe the principles of genetics and genomics.

Genetics is essential to the human race. This course has given me the opportunity to research and understand more about genetics and genomics. Genetics is a topic that interests me a lot, and it is something that I may consider in my future career. There are four main principles in genetics. Dominance principle, the principle of paired factors, independent assortment law, and the law of segregation. The principle that intrigued me the most was the independent law of assortment. This law describes how genes separate from one another during the development of sex cells (Veller et al., 2019).

Differentiate the legal and professional policies influencing healthcare decisions.

Nursing is a science that cares for individuals. It must, however, operate within the confines of the law when providing holistic care to people. This course has enabled me to understand the different laws which govern the healthcare profession. The policies include the scopes of practice by the different nursing boards, ACA, HIPAA, HITECH, and abortion-related laws. This has taught me that there are legal ramifications for practicing outside the confines of the law. It is thus critical to have an understanding of the policies that govern the profession.

Design nursing care strategies that incorporate genetic and genomic risk factors

Nursing care must incorporate all risk factors when managing patients. This course has enabled me to learn that nurses can use genomics in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring treatment to ensure positive patient outcomes. Nurses can get generational information from patients to enable them to diagnose and treat patients. They can incorporate genomics into information technology to identify patients at risk of developing genetic conditions. Genomics is an essential part of healthcare, and I will incorporate genomics into nursing models to offer quality nursing care.

References

Amer, A. B. (2019). Understanding the ethical theories in medical practice. Open Journal of Nursing, 09(02), 188-193. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2019.92018

Axson, S. A., Giordano, N. A., Hermann, R. M., & Ulrich, C. M. (2017). Evaluating nurse understanding and participation in the informed consent process. Nursing Ethics, 26(4), 1050-1061. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733017740175

Veller, C., Kleckner, N., & Nowak, M. A. (2019). A rigorous measure of genome-wide genetic shuffling that takes into account crossover positions and Mendel’s second law. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(5), 1659-1668. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817482116

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Identify ethical dilemmas encountered in professional nursing practice.
Describe the ethical theories and principles influencing healthcare decisions.
Explain the interdependency of genetics, genomics, and ethics in nursing care.

Competencies Reflection

Describe the principles of genetics and genomics.
Differentiate the legal and professional policies influencing healthcare decisions.
Design nursing care strategies that incorporate genetic and genomic risk factors.