Ethics – moral principles that govern a person’s
behavior or conducting of an activity.
 Branch of knowledge that deals with moral
principles
Biology – study of living organisms, divided into many
specialized fields that cover their morphology,
physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and
distribution
Bioethics – branch of applied ethics that studies the
philosophical, social, and legal issues arising in
medicine and the life sciences
Health Ethics – application of the core principles of
Bioethics (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence,
justice) to medical and health care decisions
Professional Ethics – encompasses the personal and
corporate standards of behavior conduct when
carrying out professional work, coded and varies
across different cultures.
BIOETHICS
Bios (life) + ethos (behavior)
Later improved form four fronts
1. Experimentation on human beings
2. New technologies
3. Ecological ethics
4. Religion
PRINCIPLES OF BIOETHICS
Non maleficence
 Premium non nocere (first of all, do not harm
the patient”
 Healthcare workers should not harm the
patient
Justice
 Defends that benefits and resources should
be fairly distributed
 All people should have access to decent
health care and treated in similar manner
Beneficence
 One should take positive steps to help others
 The healthcare professional should act in a
way that benefits the patient.
Autonomy
 One should respect the right of individuals to
make reasoned informed choices
 People only preserve dignity when they have
freedom of choice
 The individual should act according to
personal convictions, as long as they do not
harm the freedom of others
IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH CARE ETHICS
 Health care workers - Helps practitioners treat
patients with dignity, respect and decisions
made are fair and just.
 Clients - Increased trust and confidence in the
healthcare system
 Health industry - It promotes the
consideration of values in the prioritization
and justification of actions by health
professionals
PROMULGATION OF THE CODE OF ETHICS FOR
REGISTERED NURSES
Article 1 Preamble
Section 1
Health is a fundamental right of every individual. The
Filipino registered nurse, believed in the worth and
dignity of each human being, recognizes the primary
responsibility to preserve health at all cost.
Section 2
To assume the this responsibility, registered nurse
have to gain knowledge and understanding of man’s
cultural, social, spiritual, physiological and ecological
aspects of illness, utilizing the therapeutics process
Section 3
The desire for the respect and confidence of clientele,
colleagues, co-workers, and the members of the
community provides the incentives to attain and
maintain the highest possible degree of ethical
conduct.
Article 2: Registered Nurses and People
Section 4
Ethical Principles
1. Values, customs, and spiritual beliefs held by
individuals shall be respected
2. Individual freedom to make rational and
unconstrained decisions shall be respected
3. Personal information acquired in the process
of giving nursing care shall be held in strict
confidence
PURPOSE OF THE CODE
 Nurses is a statement of the ethical values,
responsibilities and professional
accountabilities of nurses and nursing
students that defines and guides ethical
nursing practice within the different roles
nurses assume.
 The code is foundational and to be built upon
in combination with the laws, regulation and
professional standards of countries that
govern nursing practice.
THE ICN CODE
The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses has four principal
elements that provide a framework for ethical
conduct: nurses and patients or other people
requiring care or services, nurses and practice, nurses
and the profession, and nurses and global health.
APPLYING THE ELEMENTS OF THE CODE
 The charts that follow the description of each
element of the Code are intended to assist
nurses to translate the standards into action.
 The ethical duties and values of nursing apply
to all forms of nursing services and roles:
clinicians, educators, students, researchers,
managers, policy makers and others.
SUGGESTIONS FOR USE of the ICN Code of Ethics for
Nurses
 To achieve its purpose the Code must be
understood, internalized and used by nurses
in all aspects of their work. It must be
available to students and nurses throughout
their study and work lives
DISSEMINATION
of the ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses
 To be effective the ICN Code of Ethics for
Nurses must be familiar to nurses. We
encourage its dissemination to schools of
nursing, nurses in their workplace, the nursing
press and other mass media. The Code should
also be disseminated to other health
professions, the general public, consumer and
policy, making groups, human rights
organizations and employers of nurses.
NNAs are encouraged to adopt this Code,
translating it into local language(s), or use it as
a framework to support their own codes of
nursing ethics.
Human Act vs Natural Acts of Man
Human act:
 Knowledge of the fact
 Freedom
 Voluntaries
Natural acts of Man
 Done without knowledge
 Without consent
 Involuntary
-Acts of man can become human acts when he
employs intellect and will in performing the act
-Acts not morally accountable
- Acts of persons asleep or under hypnosis
- Reflex actions where the will has no time to
intervene
- Acts performed under serious physical
violence
Ethics – human acts in light of morality, deals with
principles of morality and well-defined standards of
right and wrong
Ethical – morally or acceptable and is connected with
beliefs and principles about what is right and wrong
FOUR COMPONENT MODEL OF MORAL BEHAVIOR
MORAL sensitivity – recognition that an ethical
problem exists
Moral Judgement/ Reasoning – choosing the course
of action and making judgements about what is right
and wrong
Moral Motivation – motivation to follow-through on
the choices made
Moral Character – the character required to execute
the plan/ course of action chosen
ETHICAL DILEMMA/MORAL DISTRESS
 Occurring a person knows the right way for
performing something but organizational
limits would make the execution impossible
for him
 In order to assist the patients or clients
(individually, family, population groups or
community) ethically, they have to develop
sound ethical judgement, good grasp of
ethical theories, principles and guidelines and
codes of ethics.
 Key points on moral good:
 Not only on how the said good affects
himself but also with those around him
 Empiric manner
 Seek happiness
 Study the soul of man
 Reason and will; rationality
 Contextualized
 Benefits the honorable good
 The source of joy is the good; the root of
pain is evil
 Bad or evil can be pleasing; but not
necessarily honorable; honorable good
may be painful
 Goodness is objective; go after the good
 It is desirable because it is good
REFERENCES POINTS FOR HUMAN ACTS
will behave in accordance with the rules dictated by
the society.
NURSING ETHICS – Applied discipline that studies the
ethical dimensions and issues in nursing practice;
Subset of health care ethics
NURSING CODE OF ETHICS
• BON Resolution 220 series of 2004
• Provides guidance for carrying out nursing
responsibilities consistent with ethical obligations of
the profession
• Provides guidance for safe and compassionate care
• Guarantees the public that nurse adheres to
standards of professional practice
ETHICAL THEORIES

Natural law

 A rule of reason, promulgated by God in

human’s nature whereby man can discern
through the use of his intellect.
 Designed to help God’s creature to find and
realize his purpose and end.
 For Good to be done and pursued, and evil is
to be avoided (Beneficence and Non-
maleficence)

Civil law

 Designed to protect the freedom of the

people (freedom to lead a good life away from
harm or evil).
 Designed by men of goodwill guided by the
use of their reason and intellect.

Cultural norms

 Product of the time and space related

concerns hence, conditions and needs of a
particular culture in the context of the time
and space it is happening shall be considered.
 Constantly changing depending on the
conditions surrounding it.
 Emerged from people of the same culture
aiming for survival and pursuing the good for
themselves at a particular time and space.

Code of ethics

Formal statements of the group’s ideals and values

PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS – Each profession’s

contract with the society on how their professionals