In the book Critical Care by Theresa Brown, chapter ten spoke volumes to how ethical, moral, and legal elements play a part in nursing care values. In this chapter Theresa talks about a patient who was starving but couldn’t eat due to a surgical procedure that was suppose to take place. She mentioned getting him to the OR was her priortiy that day. When someone came to get him she was relieved he got there but then later found out he sat outside the OR for 4 hours which angered her. She had to fight for this patient to get into the OR that day and it showed that she valued him and what he needed to get treatment to then get better. She fought for him because she knew him sitting there was not right and she voiced that. However, she was informed that the surgeon didn’t perform surgery due to him not thinking it was safe due to clotting factors. She then resolved the problem and got him back to the OR that night. This shows the ethical, moral, and legal elements inherent in the formation of professional nursing values which is Learning Objective 3. It connects to the learning objective because the legality of doing a surgery he felt wasn’t safe was put into place and the morals of the nurse and how she thought it wasn’t ethical leaving a starving patient waiting for 4 hours was also brought to attention. These are all important elements when forming professional nursing values.
