Abstract
[This is an excerpt.] Purpose: Nurses have a duty to care for patients and are challenged to thoughtfully analyze the balance of professional responsibility and risk, including competing moral obligations and options, in order to preserve the ethical mandates in situations with actual or potential risk to the nurse or profession. Statement of ANA Position: The American Nurses Association (ANA) believes that nurses are obligated to care for patients in a nondiscriminatory manner, with respect for all individuals. The ANA recognizes there may be limits to the personal risk of harm nurses can be expected to accept as an ethical duty. Harm includes emotional, psychological, physical, moral, or spiritual harm. When defining professional nursing responsibilities, nurses consider the required, reciprocal obligations of employers, government, and society to provide the resources necessary to reduce known or unknown risks. Nurses are not obligated to take on extreme risk to prove their value. [To read more, click View Resource.]
