Incorporating Ethical Comportment Into DNP Nursing

¶ … Carnegie National Nursing Education Study investigated the three dimensions of nursing education and formation apprenticeships (Benner et al., 2010). These are the learning of theory and scientific methods, the mastery of skillful practice, and the development of a professional identity and agency. These dimensions must be incorporated and integrated into every professional nurse's identity and actions (Benner et al.). The most important finding of this Study was the lack of education in responding to the demands of their profession among present-day nurses ( -- Benner et al., 2010).

This deficit or education-practice gap was an issue, which bothered earlier researches. Nurses of the past did not possess the ability to adopt in practice settings and to reflect correctly on what they were taught in school. The current issue has been reversed. The practice-education gap refers to the difficulty of nursing education to cope with fast, research-driven changes and new technologies that keep developing (Benner et al.). The study had three other important findings. The first was the effectiveness of U.S.

nursing programs in developing professional identity and ethical comportment (Benner et al., 2010). It pointed to the big difference between what nursing students and their teachers understand as ethical comportment and what it is taught to be. Their understanding of ethics related more to the principles of bioethics in contrast to what is taught as becoming good practitioners who aims at continuous improvement and mainly focusing on the patient. The second is that powerful learning experiences occur in clinical practice when teachers combine clinical and classroom teaching.

This is because nursing students work directly with patients and the health team. And the third is the nursing programs' lack of efficiency in teaching nursing science, natural sciences, social sciences, technology and the humanities (Benner et al.) The study underscored the huge strength of the third apprenticeship, particularly in comparison with other professional fields like engineering, law, and medicine (Benner et al., 2008).

But most of what is taught about everyday ethical comportment and the shaping of identity, character and skilled capabilities among student nurses was confined to clinical practice, dilemma ethics and bioethics. What should receive greater emphasis are ethical rights according to the principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, honesty, just allocation of limited resources, and justice or fairness. While biomedical ethics or bioethics is needed in the profession, it is not enough.

There is more crucial need for a strong voice to protect the rights of patients, the problems of the uninsured and under-insured, and the increasing inequalities in health care. Evolving new technologies must also be critically evaluated as regards moral questions and dilemmas with their use. That strong voice should articulate the basic right to treatment, the right to die, informed consent, biological options in reproduction and fertility, genetic testing and therapies, and the unabated uneven access to healthcare.

Reducing the knowledge of ethical standards will not conduce to the formation and everyday ethical comportment. Healthcare professionals should also learn the concepts of good practice in other disciplines, such as medicine, social work and ministry (Benner et al.). Integrating the Concept of Ethical Comportment into DNP Nursing This can be done by meeting and.