What the Code of Ethics means to me: Terry Surratt
Even with the constraints of the current health care environment, we, the staff nurses, keep coming back for more of the same. Because that is who we are and that is what we do. We are ethical creatures. We provide ethical care, and we care about our patients and the people we work with.
November 3, 2015 • 4 minutes to read
The Code of Ethics wasn’t meant to sit on a shelf. It was meant to be a guide for nurses in their daily practice, whether as a nursing student, a staff nurse, an educator or a nurse administrator. So, we asked you, our members, for some of your perspectives on and how it applies to you and your profession. Here are some of the answers we got back.
The Code of Ethics and the staff nurse
The staff nurse is required to adjust to specific situations in the workplace on an hourly, daily, every shift basis. Social reasons are as prevalent as reasons arising between peers, physicians or interactions with patients themselves. We work in ‘the trenches’ as the saying goes, and more and more, these ‘trenches’ are truly resembling their namesakes.
Short staffing, no rest breaks, no lunches, demanding patient loads and higher acuity of patients set up a very daunting atmosphere for the nurse and her or his thoughts of entering the hospital to begin one more shift. The nurse wonders what will be the highlight of the shift, what kind of care can be given to the patients depending on the mind and hands providing that care. Will there be enough time to treat ‘the whole patient’? Will there be time to snatch something to eat, a quick bite between administering required meds?
I believe this is called Moral Distress, according to an article written by American Nurses Association President Pam Cipriano in the July/August 2015 issue of The article talks about “safe and empowering environments.” We staff nurses look forward with hope to the day we can feel safe and empowered in our work environments once again.
Gone are the days when we knew we had a job and didn’t need to plan for the LC (Low Census) hit to our paychecks and the need to use our PTO (Paid Time Off) hours to cover the loss of worked shifts. Gone are the days when we could exercise our right to take a vacation with PTO hours as a chance to relax and regenerate so we can go back ‘into those trenches’ and provide the kind of excellent care we want to provide. Gone are the days when we knew we would have a sufficient number of nurses working next to us so the patients and the nurses are in a safe and empowering environment.
Staff nurses are asked to watch each other to make sure we are washing our hands correctly, to make sure all ‘gel in and gel out’ when coming and going from a patient room. We are told, ‘suck it up’, ‘make it work’, ‘make do with what we have’, ‘cut costs/supplies’, cut, cut cut….
However, even with the constraints of the current health care environment, we, the staff nurses, keep coming back for more of the same. Because that is who we are and that is what we do. We are ethical creatures. We provide ethical care, and we care about our patients and the people we work with. The community needs us, the hospital needs us, the patients need us and our peers need us.
We work with societal changes that occur, we don’t care about the color of someone’s skin, their sexual orientation, whether they like the color pink. We care for everyone in the same manner. We work within the cuts because we MUST, and we work for something better. We work to bring safe and empowering care to the patients and to the nurses delivering care.
The nursing “Code of Ethics” is something I fall back on to support my own values and ethics as I perform my duties. Nursing is a true calling which is proven hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. I protect my patients and my livelihood as my calling.
I live my calling.