Relevance of Autonomy and Consequentialism to Nursing

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Relevance of Autonomy and Consequentialism to Nursing
Introduction
Consequentialism, along with the four ethical principles, is commonly used by health care providers to resolve ethical dilemmas (
Guven
, 2010). Autonomy is the pivotal principle since nurses in all situations are aiming for beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Consequentialism is not perfect because there inevitably are unknown factors at work which could affect outcomes. However, consequentialism and autonomy are especially relevant when nurses must deal with complex cases of disclosure.
Case of disclosure
One of the most difficult forms of disclosure is to inform a patient that they have cancer. When a patient learns that they have cancer about which they had no...

.....as. Most of all, there are situations where ethical principles are in conflict so that there appears to be no means to do right. I now have an approach to deal with these complex situations.
References
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http://www.cno.org/docs/prac/41034_Ethics.pdf
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, T. (2010). Truth-telling in cancer. Nursing Ethics, 17(2), 159-166.
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