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Hi everyone,

My name is Jessica Mendenhall and today I will be

sharing my personal beliefs on um ethics involved in healthcare.

Please bear with me. I don't usually do videos.

The only experience I really have is Snapchat with my nieces and nephews,

so we'll do the best we can today. Um I wanted to become a nurse at a very young age.

I always liked helping people when they were sick.

Um I also became interested in science at a young age as well.

Uh my poor dog Chelsea, the black lab was usually my patient growing up,

so I would oftentimes pretend that she was ill and I would have to take care of her.

Um so that was great for her.

Um I also

remember being a kid and

how my mom would take care of us kids when we were sick was really great.

She was very comforting and had this wonderful presence about her and

her cool hands always felt so good when I had a fever.

So that was kind of one of my driving forces of um wanting

to provide that same level of compassion and care in my future career.

So nursing was just kind of a really easy

fit for me and something I felt very called to.

I'm very proud to be a nurse and I really love

that a huge part of the health care system and nursing

particularly revolves around the code of ethics which are the guiding

principles of how and why we should practice as nurses.

I grew up in a very conservative christian family and while it

was very loving and fun and I'm very grateful for those experiences.

I also know that I was sheltered and protected from a lot of the

real world and I don't mean to say this in a bad way.

I think every parent wants to shield their child from certain aspects of the world,

But when I entered nursing school, I was only 19.

So I had a lot of rude awakenings into what real life was like for so many people.

Um, there were a lot of morally gray areas that I had never encountered before.

All of a sudden I was providing care for

individuals who had committed horrible crimes or had made

poor life choices that resulted in their medical condition

or patients that were being abusive to the staff,

be it verbally or sometimes even physically.

Um, so all of these encounters

and difficult situations kind of made me dig deeper inside myself

to sharpen my beliefs both spiritually and professionally.

My faith in God and my christian beliefs have helped shape

my nursing philosophy and views on morality over the years.

I think there is a lot of the bible that

is up for interpretation and can be confusing,

but when I focus on the main concepts, it becomes very simple

love others as you would love yourself, feed the hungry care for the sick, needy,

the orphans and the widows and not to judge others because we're all broken humans

provision number one of the code of ethics

for nurses put forth by the american nurses association

reads,

the nurse practices with compassion and respect for the

inherent dignity worth and unique attributes of every person.

I really love this provision because it is a reminder

that our job is for the individuals and to understand that

each life is unique and worthy of respect and dignity

regardless of how we choose to live our own lives.

It is not our jobs as nurses to judge or criticize

even when our patients make choices that we don't agree with.

This can be really challenging at times and I'm

sure we have all had our share of patients or

their families that are either difficult to deal with

or make medical decisions that we don't agree with,

but we must always acknowledge and fight for

the right to self determination for our patients.

They should be informed of their options and provided with

all the education and counseling we can give them,

but ultimately we must respect their choice.

Um

and

the inherent choice that they have for their own bodies.

This can be really hard for me and others, I'm sure,

um because so much of our profession is

regarding

saving lives and doing the best we can.

And so sometimes it's difficult when they go against medical

advice because we know they may have poor outcomes.

Um if they choose non treatment or a treatment option

that is um not as superior as another one,

But it is still my responsibility to be kind

and compassionate in my care of a patient,

even if I'm at odds um with them and what we think is right for them.

There are four principles of ethics autonomy and nursing. Um

Beneficence in nursing justice and nursing. And non

maleficent in nursing as well, autonomy,

which is the freedom of the patient to

make their own decisions regarding their care.

It is our job as nurses to advocate and fight for our patients and their rights.

Um I work in surgery currently.

And so this takes on a new meaning when my patients are trusting me because

they're going under general anesthesia and they

really cannot speak for themselves any longer.

So

um I take that role very seriously as a patient advocate

to make sure that I am upholding the patient's wishes regarding

um the surgery that they are having.

Um

It's also our moral duty to promote the well being of our

patients and choose the course of action that will lead to the best

outcome. The A. N.

A describes it as actions guided by compassion, which I really appreciated.

Um and for justice.

It pertains to the patient's right to fair and equal treatment, regardless of age,

religious beliefs, gender, race and sexual orientation.

Again, we don't have to agree with anything.

We just have to love people and treat them fairly and non maleficent is to do no harm,

recklessness.

Willful willful ignorance and negligence are all examples of that.

I think we all learned all of these principles

and ethics in nursing school and I know that

we all believe we would never become the nurse

that is impatient or not compassionate with our patients.

Um

but the truth is that nursing is hard,

patients are very difficult. Staff can be difficult.

Staffing shortages and overworking can really take their toll on us.

So I think it's really important that we come back to the why of nursing and

remember the driving forces of what made us want to become nurses in the first place.

Um I want to continue to question my own beliefs and to

continue to grow as a nurse and as a future healthcare provider

and I hope to do my best and to always live by these

principles and provisions and to incorporate my faith into everything that I do.

So thank you very much for taking the time to watch my video.

And I hope you guys all have a great week coming up

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