Introduce the conceptual frameworks of the ethical constructs of ethics, moral, or legal standards and the purpose of the paper.

Write a 4 to 5 page paper (page count does not include title and reference page) that addresses the following:

Introduce the conceptual frameworks of the ethical constructs of ethics, moral, or legal standards and the purpose of the paper.
Consider an ethical, moral, or legal dilemma that you have encountered in your work environment and describe it.
Analyze the moral, ethical, and legal implications utilized in this situation. Describe your role as a moral agent or advocate for this specific issue.
Consider your leadership styles identified by your self-assessment and determine if they act as a barrier or facilitation during this dilemma.

ANSWER

Conceptual Frameworks of the Ethical Constructs

Nursing practitioners are expected to act professionally and with a sense of compassion, empathy, and understanding. Conceptual frameworks of virtual theories including utilitarianism, humanism, and deontology are used to outline an acceptable code of conduct in making informed decisions for nurses in practice (Grace, 2017). These frameworks help at locating the virtues in an interdependent connection with the principles of goodness and rightness. Each framework provides responses to an ethical, moral, or legal dilemma. Therefore, healthcare practitioners have to embrace principles and rules that guarantee the most morally, legally, and ethically justifiable results. In addition, the nurses ought to react with a sense of compassion and empathy to benefit the patients and help them avoid professional liability as a result of negligence (McLeod-Sordjan, 2014). This paper focus at introducing conceptual frameworks and describing an ethical dilemma I have encountered as well as describing my role as a moral agent based on self-assessment leadership styles.

Consequential, Humanist, and Deontological Theories

Decision-making process is guided by a number of concepts including humanistic, consequential, and deontological theories. Consequentialism is one of the normative ethical theories that hold that the consequences of an individual’s behavior are the ultimate base for any judgment regarding the wrongness and rightness of that behavior. Thus, from a consequentialist perspective, a morally right decision is one that will lead to a positive consequence or result. The concept of consequentialism is also encapsulated in the saying, “the end justifies the means,” implying that if a goal of achieving something is ethically important, any process of realizing it is acceptable (Fisher, 2016).

Humanism, on the other hand, is an approach to life-based on reasons and humanity. The proponents hold that ethical and moral values are instituted only on human experience and nature. Therefore, concerns for other people does not necessarily have an impact from external sources (Fisher, 2016). For instance, when making decisions of a given dilemma, an individual does not refer to sacred texts or religious authorities to determine what is moral or ethical.  They also do not believe that their right or wrong acts will be compensated in the future.

Deontological ethicsis another important ethical theory that holds that the goodness of a decision should be on the basis of whether the action itself is right or wrong based on several rules, rather than the consequences of the action (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). Therefore, deontological ethics holds that an action is morally right because of features of the of the action itself, but not because the consequences of the action are right.

Ethical Dilemma That I Have Encountered in My Work Environment

Molina, a 32-year-old Native Hawaiian female, 28 weeks pregnant, was brought to the emergency department in critical condition following a serious road accident. Besides, she was a staunch follower of Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. Upon close examination, the patient exhibited symptoms and signs of internal bleeding. The doctor recommended for blood transfusion and emergency surgery in an effort to protect Molina’s life and the unborn child. However, the patient rejected the surgery as well as blood transfusion based on religious beliefs, which do not permit sharing of blood. The ethical dilemma presented in this case is whether to compromise standards of care and respect the patient’s autonomy or disregard the patient’s requests in an attempt to save her life and the fetus.  In a second scenario, Mr. Paul, a 45-year-old gentleman is suffering from severe prostate cancer. Mr. Paul was diagnosed with the disease 7…