ETHC 445N Week 3 Discussion & Follow-up Self and Others

Initial Post Instructions Rather than living in chaos, danger, and the hostility of our neighbors, we find ways to live together. It isn't easy, but can we avoid doing so? If everybody has self-interest in their own welfare and safety, then everybody also has self- interest in the welfare and safety of others. Self-interest involves community interest, and we must think about what we are willing to give up in order to get that safety and stability for ourselves, our families, our community, our nation, and even the world. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are just two examples of social contract moralists. Locke's philosophy helped Thomas Jefferson formulate the United States Declaration of Independence. We are interested in what it means to live together in an orderly way under a social contract. Initial Post Instructions For the initial post, address one of the following sets of questions: • What is a time when you or someone you know of experienced a conflict between duty to self and loyalty to the community? What would logical reasoning say should be done in that case? Why that? What would an Ethical Egoist say to do? Why would they say to do that? Note what you feel is the best course ofaction. • What is a time when you or someone you know experienced a clash between professional duties and familial duties? Reference a professional code such as that of the American Nurses Association or American Bar Association in explaining the clash. What moral values should have been used in that case? Why those values? What would social contract ethics have said to have done? Why would social contract ethics say that? Note what you feel is the best course of action. • Articulate and evaluate a time when you or someone you know saw personal obligations collide with national obligations. How did that tension involve differing positions on a moral debate? Did those positions rely on any key moral theories? If so, how so? If not, whynot? Note what you feel is the best course of action. Hello Class & Professor, What is a time when you or someone you know experienced a clash between professional duties and familial duties? Personal ethics means the person faces the ethical concern on daily basis in respect of the things he himself considered to be right. Whereas in the case of professional ethics, it is set of standards that has been meant to implement for the welfare for the ethical concern of organization, professionals as well as the clients (Ruggiero,2012). For example, a time that a clash between professional duties and familial duties happened was when I was working as a CNA and if the next shift staff did not show up for the overnight shift, we were expected to stay. We weren’t allowed to leave and leave the residents on the floorunattended. However, I could not stay the overnight shift because at the time my mom was hospitalized due to leukemia. Overnight shifts were my shifts to switch with my brother so he could go rest and take over the next morning. We had a set schedule cycle going on that helped take care of my mom. We did this because we understood that nurses are busy and if she were to need something it would take some time for her to get it. So, us being there helped take some of the physical load off the nurses. Being a CAN has its physical and mental tiredness. It brings out so much stress and the work pressure is high. Both in theory were my patients. Because with my mom I was doing CNA work. I wasn’t getting paid, but it was the same duties a CNA has to do. So, I had to choose between the residents or my mom. Reference a professional code such as that of the American Nurses Association or American Bar Association in explaining the clash. In the case of healthcare organizations there are various times when conflict occurs between professional ethics and personal ethics. The healthcare professionals mostly face this dilemma where they need to follow professional ethics while providing care or treatment to the patients. American Nurses Association guides the nurses to implement ethical concern while providing care to the patients. “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, community, or population” (Fowler, 2015, p.64) In the case I faced conflicts such as while providing care to my patients, I couldn’t make a personal decision (Fowler, 2015). But due to personal ethics, sometimes we get moreconcerned regarding a particular patient. In my case, my biggest concern was mymom. What moral values should have been used in that case? Why thosevalues? The moral values that should have been used in my case would be compassion and honesty. Why? Compassionate because my current patients wouldn’t have an aid overnight and end up neglected. They also deserve the proper care. I had to be honest with myself and realize that my mother had the proper staffing needs to properly take care of her. Or I could simply have switched with my brother and he cover the night shift and I take his morning shift. Whereas my current patients didn’t have the same options/ staff looking out for them if I left. What would social contract ethics have said to have done? Why would social contract ethics say that? A social contract ethicist would say that we live together in a society with an agreement that establish moral and political rules of behavior (Weale, 2017). That we live morally by our own decisions and not because a divine being requires it. I believe they would say that I must follow that rule, stay the shift, because it comes with being a CNA, it is my ethical duty and the practical thing to do. Leaving the patients on their own would be nasty and brutish. Being a CNA implies the duty of taking care of the patients and are the rules that must be respected. Why would a social contract ethicist say that? Because a social contract ethicist endorses the common-sense morality. Right and wrong are measured by the obligations imposed on each individual by an implied agreement between individuals (myself and the company) held together by common interest (to be a CAN & care for the patients) (Weale, 2017). To live in harmony, we must give up certain freedoms to gain certain protections. Giving up taking care of my mom, allowed me to keep my job and reputation of CNA. Note what you feel is the best course of action. Personally, the best course of action would have been to just leave and take care of my mom. Why? Well because mother I only have one and jobs there is plenty. I say this because after working for different companies I have learned that work is a never-ending process. The interest of the patient is important, but so is your family. If you fall in your life, neither your boss nor patient will offer you a helping hand like your family. We do not study hard and struggle in life to become a machine. Nursing is very hard, work pressure is very high, we must increase our shifts due to shortage. It is tiredness. All of this leads to aggressive behavior, insufficient time to care for our family members, disturbance in family affective circumstance, distress & if married, a dissatisfied spouse about working all the extra hours and being unavailable. Family sometimes understand that the shifts are different, but they don’t know the hardness of the job. References: Fowler, M. D. M. (2015). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: development, interpretation, and application. American Nurses Association. Ruggiero, V. R. (2012). Thinking critically about ethical issues. McGraw-Hill. Weale, A. (2017). Associative Obligation and the Social Contract. Philosophia, 45(2), 463–476. Response: Interesting puzzle. You express your resolution, however, in Egoistic terms. You can always find a new job. You are tired. Your family is more likely to be therefore you in a crisis. Is this really a clash with familial duties or duties to self? Hello Professor, Also, in egoistic terms, I should have left to care for my mother, not necessarily leave my job. Because the problem wasn’t my profession. Therefore, I don’t think I should have to find a new job because I’m tired of how the system is set up. All professions come with certain cons that typically have a solution. Should I find a different career path because I’m tired of nursing school? The reason I’m tired, all nurses are, is because the patient-ratio is absurd. 66:2 nurse and 66:4 CNA is the ratio law set in Illinois (Wofford, 2019). Meaning 17 patients per CNA. So, if a fellow coworker calls off then you’re looking at about 22 patients per CNA. The expectations and number of tasks we are to do within our shift are crazy on top of taking on the extra work, it is unsafe (Wofford, 2019). I love what I do, but why should it be my responsibility to fulfill someone else’s work responsibility? I’m not tired of doing my job. What it is tiring is how oftenwe have to put off our familiar duties to fulfill someone else’s. We shouldn’t be held accountable to fulfill companies staffing needs, because they don’t have a reasonable backup plan in case someone called in or were short staffed (Harrington & Edelman, 2018). Laws right now allow for corporations to point blame at the individual staff cna’s and nurses if anything goes wrong. Therefore, answering your question, lifestyles, obligations, responsibilities change when we have to take care of a family member since there is little that can be done to lessen the impact of the staff shortage. It is also a familial duties clash because of my duty to my family, obedience and respect, the behavior intended to please my parents. As a Latina, we grow up in a permissive and loving environment. However, we are also given real, necessary tasks and responsibilities for which we are held accountable, such as taking care of our parents as they age, or should they become ill (Landale, 2006). References: Harrington, C., & Edelman, T. S. (2018). Failure to Meet Nurse Staffing Standards: A Litigation Case Study of a Large US Nursing Home Chain. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 55. Doi: Landale, N. S. (2006). Hispanic Families in the United States: Family Structure and Process in an Era of Family Change. Hispanics and the Future of America. Wofford, P. (2019). Nurses Say Staffing Ratios In Long Term Care Facilities Are Unsafe. N.