The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements
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Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 1 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements Silver Spring, Maryland 2014 * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 2 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Contents The Code of Ethics for Nurses Preface Provision 1 1.1 Respect for human dignity 1.2 Relationships to patients 1.3 The nature of health 1.4 The right to self-determination 1.5 Relationships with colleagues and others Provision 2 2.1 Primacy of the patient's interests 2.2 Conflict of interest for nurses 2.3 Collaboration 2.4 Professional boundaries Provision 3 3.1 Protection of the rights of privacy and confidentiality 3.2 Protection of human participants in research 3.3 Performance standards and review mechanisms 3.4 Professional competence in nursing practice 3.5 Protecting patient health and safety by action on questionable practice 3.6 Patient protection and impaired practice * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 3 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Provision 4 4.1 Authority, accountability, and responsibility 4.2 Accountability for nursing judgment, decisions, and action 4.3 Responsibility for nursing judgment, decisions, and action 4.4 Delegation of nursing activities or tasks Provision 5 5.1 Duty to self and others 5.2 Promotion of personal health, safety, and well-being 5.3 Wholeness of character 5.4 Preservation of integrity 5.5 Maintenance of competence and professional growth 5.6 Personal growth Provision 6 6.1 The environment and moral virtue and values 6.2 The environment and ethical obligation 6.3 Responsibility for the healthcare environment Provision 7 7.1 Contributions through research and scholarly inquiry 7.2 Contributions through developing maintaining, and implementing professional practice standards 7.3 Contributions through nursing and health policy development * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 4 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Provision 8 8.1 Health is a universal right 8.2 Collaboration for health, human rights, and health diplomacy 8.3 Obligation to advance health and human rights 8.4 Collaboration for human rights in complex and extraordinary practice settings Provision 9 9.1 Articulation of values 9.2 Integrity of the profession 9.3 Integrating social justice 9.4 Social justice in nursing and health policy * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 5 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. The Code of Ethics for Nurses Provision 1 The nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and personal attributes of every person, without prejudice. Provision 2 The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population. Provision 3 The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health and safety of the patient. Provision 4 The nurse has authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice, makes decisions, and takes action consistent with the obligation to provide optimal care. Provision 5 The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health and safety, preserve wholeness of character and integrity, maintain competence, and continue personal and professional growth. Provision 6 The nurse, through individual and collective action, establishes, maintains, and improves the moral environment of the work setting and the conditions of employment, conducive to quality health care. * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 6 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Provision 7 The nurse, whether in research, practice, education, or administration, contributes to the advancement of the profession through research and scholarly inquiry, professional standards development, and generation of nursing and health policies. Provision 8 The nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public to protect and promote human rights, health diplomacy, and health initiatives. Provision 9 The profession of nursing, collectively through its professional organizations, must articulate nursing values, maintain the integrity of the profession, and integrate principles of social justice into nursing and health policy. * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 7 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Preface The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements establishes the ethical standard for the profession and provides a guide for nurses to use in ethical analysis and decision-making. It is non-negotiable in any setting, neither is it subject to revision or amendment except by formal process of revision by the American Nurses Association. The Code of Ethics for Nurses arises from within the long, distinguished, and enduring moral tradition of modern nursing in the United States. It is foundational to nursing theory, practice, and praxis in its expression of the values, virtues and obligations that shape, guide, and inform nursing as a profession. Nursing encompasses the prevention of illness, the alleviation of suffering, and the protection, promotion, and restoration of health in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations. This is reflected, in part, in nursing’s persisting commitment to the welfare of the sick, injured, and vulnerable in society and for social justice issues. Nurses act to change those aspects of social structures that detract from health and well-being. Individuals who become nurses, as well as the professional organizations that represent them, are expected not only to adhere to the values, moral norms, and ideals of the profession but also to embrace them as a part of what it means to be a nurse. The ethical tradition of nursing is self-reflective, enduring, and distinctive. A code of ethics for the nursing profession makes explicit the primary obligations, values, and ideals of the profession that inform every aspect of the nurse’s life. * For public review and comment May 6 through June 6, 2014. Not for attribution or distribution © 2014 American Nurses Association Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements 8 Public review draft for reading* Note: To submit comments about this draft, please use the per-Provision files and cite the line numbers to which you are referring. The Code of Ethics for Nurses serves the following purposes: It is a succinct statement of the ethical values, obligations, duties, and professional ideals of nurses individually and collectively. It is the profession’s nonnegotiable ethical standard. It is an expression of nursing’s own understanding of its commitment to society. Statements that describe activities and attributes of nurses in this code of ethics and its interpretive statements are to be understood as normative or prescriptive statements expressing expectations of ethical behavior. The Code of Ethics for Nurses also expresses the ethical ideals of the nursing profession and is, thus, both normative and aspirational. While this Code articulates the ethical obligations of all nurses, it does not predetermine how those obligations must be met. In some instances nurses meet those obligations individually; in other instances a nurse will support other nurses in their execution of these obligations; and at other times those obligations can and will only be met collectively. The Code of Ethics for Nurses addresses individual as well as collective nursing intentions and requires each nurse to demonstrate ethical competence in professional life.