Warm up Activity: Wordle

Wordle: Guess the word

How to play:
You have six guesses
A green tile indicates that you've
guessed the correct letter in the
correct place in the word.
A yellow tile means you've guessed a
letter that's in the word, but not in
the right spot.
A gray tile means that letter is not in
the word. 20XX 1
Ethics II
Corina Rochon

2
Learning Objectives
1. Consider the components of a nurse's
moral agency.
2. Examine a nurse's ethical duty to report
incompetent, impaired practice or
unethical conduct of health care
professionals.
3. Explore ethics in nursing practice.
4. Discover moral perspectives of
Indigenous People in Canada.

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Moral Agency
Morality
Morality can be described as
◦ culturally based beliefs and norms about what is right and wrong
◦ societal beliefs about right human conduct
◦ a set of rules that are taught to children as they grow up

Guided by explicitly codes of conduct and rules governing behaviour

KEATINGS & ADAMS (2020); ELSEVIER CANADA (2010) 5

Canadian Nurses Association (CNA)
Code of Ethics
 was first published in 1980 and has been
periodically revised, most recently in 2017
 offers nurses a framework for ethical
practice
 consists of two parts
◦ I: Nursing Values and Ethical
Responsibilities
◦ II: Ethical Endeavours related to Broad
Societal Issues

CNA CODE OF ETHICS FOR REGISTERED NURSES (2017); CREATIVE COMMONS (2022) 6
 Nursing values and
ethical responsibilities
providing safe, compassionate,
competent, and ethical care
promoting health and well-being
promoting and respecting informed
decision making
honoring dignity
maintaining privacy and confidentiality
promoting justice
being accountable

CNA CODE OF ETHICS FOR REGISTERED NURSES (2017) 7

BCCNM Ethical Practice
Makes the client the primary concern in providing
nursing care.
Provides care in a manner that preserves and protects
client dignity.
Demonstrates honesty and integrity.
Clearly and accurately represents self with respect to
name, title and role.
Protects client privacy and confidentiality.
Recognizes, respects and promotes the client’s right to
be informed and make informed choices
Initiates, maintains and terminates nurse-client
relationships in an appropriate manner.
BCCNM (2022)
Promotes and maintains respectful communication in
all professional interactions
Treats colleagues, students and other health care
workers in a respectful manner.
Recognizes and respects the contribution of others on
the health care team.
Makes equitable decisions about the allocation of
resources under one’s control based on the needs of
clients.
Identifies the effect of own values, beliefs and
experiences in carrying out clinical activities; recognizes
potential conflicts and takes action to prevent or resolve.
Identifies ethical issues; consults with the appropriate
person or body; takes action to resolve and evaluates the
effectiveness of actions.
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Ethical obligations and duty to report
Responding ethically to incompetent, non-
compassionate, unsafe or unethical Care

Nurses question, intervene, report and address unsafe, non-compassionate, unethical or

incompetent practice or conditions that interfere with their ability to provide safe,
compassionate, competent and ethical care
Nurses are honest and take all necessary actions to prevent or minimize patient safety
incidents. Learning from near misses and collaborate work to reduce future risks and
preventable harms
Nurses intervene, and report, when necessary, when others fail to respect the dignity of a
person they are caring for or a colleague (including students), recognizing that to be silent and
passive is to condone the behavior. They speak up, facilitate conversation and adjudicate
disputes, as appropriate/required

CAN (2017) 10
Responding ethically continued…
Nurses, as members of a self-regulating profession, practice according to the values and
responsibilities in the Code and in keeping with the professional standards, laws and
regulations supporting ethical practice
Nurses are attentive to signs that a colleague is unable, for whatever reason, to perform their
duties. In such a case, nurses will take the necessary steps to protect the safety of persons
receiving care

CAN (2017) 11
BCCNM Duty to Report
All nurses have a legal and ethical obligation to report incompetent or impaired practice or unethical conduct
of any regulated health professional.
In B.C., the Health Professions Act establishes a legal duty for nurses to report situations in which there is a
good reason to believe that a regulated health professional’s practice is impaired or incompetent and may
pose a danger to the public
Under this practice standard, nurses also have an expanded duty to report situations in which they have
reason to believe that a regulated health professional’s practice poses a danger to the public because of
unethical behavior or for other reasons.
Nurses may have obligations to report regulated health professionals under other legislation and regulations.
The specific legislation or regulation that applies to a nurse’s practice depends on the work setting and the
nature of the work.​

BCCNM (2022) 12
Duty to Report - Process
If you are concerned about a colleagues practice, you should:

• Discuss your concerns with the colleague directly and/or

• Discuss your concerns with the supervisor/manager
• If your concerns are not addressed, you can escalate your concerns to the Patient Care
Quality Office or health care agency of employment
• You can submit your written concern directly to BCCNM

BCCNM (2022) 13
 Application
Exercise
BCCNM has various resources
available to nurses related to our
practice standards. Individually or
in pairs, work through the
following case study:
https://www.bccnm.ca/RN/learnin
g/dutytoreport/drug_diversion/Pa
ges/nurse.aspx

BCCNM (2022) 14
BCCNM disciplinary notices

BCCNM discipline and https://www.bccnm.ca/Pu As you review the website,

public notices are readily blic/complaints/Pages/pub which disciplinary actions
lic_notices.aspx stand out to you?
available to the general
public

BCCNM (2022) 15
Indigenous Peoples in Canada moral perspectives
Indigenous ethics
Indigenous ethics resonate with the values of honor, trust, honesty, and humility
Ethical thinking begins at birth and is passed through generations
Storytelling is the primary method of learning
The sacred teachings of respect, bravery, honesty, humility, truth, wisdom, and love are
significant guidelines that resonate in most Indigenous cultures and along with storytelling,
contributes to ethical thinking.

BINN, CANADA, CHENOWETH, & NEEL (N.D) 17

 Elders
largely responsible for retaining and
sharing the knowledge of cultural and
moral traditions.
promotes history, traditions, customs,
values, and beliefs
called upon to advise people and guide
the community on what to do in difficult
situations
often health care decisions are made
with family, communities, elders,
especially when moral challenges are
made.

KEATINGS & ADAMS (2021); ELSEVIER CANADA (2010); CREATIVE COMMONS (2022) 18
Storytelling
◦ Meaning of the stories is different for each person
◦ a child develops identity and learns about moral responsibility
◦ Allows for one to recognize patterns
◦ Passed between generations; strong system of knowledge that guiding moral thinking and
actions
◦ Storytelling is used to guide behavior and solidify belonging and responsibility to the family,
community, and larger world

KEATINGS & ADAMS (2021); ELSEVIER CANADA (2010); BINN, CANADA, CHENOWETH, & NEEL (N.D.) 19
Application Activity
In small groups, refer to the
“Heinz’s Dilemma” activity on
Blackboard and answer the
questions

We will discuss as a large group

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