Chapter 03: Legal and Ethical Issues Yoder-Wise: Leading and Managing in Nursing, 7th Edition | Questions and Answers(A+ Solution guide)

1. The manager in the coronary care unit believes an important ethical consideration in performance evaluations is to include the employee's good qualities and give positive direction for professional growth. What ethical principle does this represent? a. Justice b. Fidelity c. Beneficence d. Nonmaleficence - ANS: D Nonmaleficence refers to "doing no harm." For a nurse manager following this principle, performance evaluation should emphasize an employee's good qualities and give positive direction for growth. Destroying the employee's self-esteem and self-worth would be considered doing harm under this principle. 2. A staff nurse in the area that you manage has excelled in the delivery of patient education. You are considering implementing a new job description that would broaden her opportunity to teach patients and orient new staff members to the value of patient education. What ethical principle is being reinforced? a. Justice b. Fidelity c. Paternalism d. Respect for others - ANS: C The principle of paternalism allows one person to make partial decisions for another and is most frequently deemed to be a negative or undesirable principle. Paternalism, however, may be used to assist persons to make decisions when they do not have sufficient data or expertise. Paternalism becomes undesirable when the entire decision is taken away from the employee. 3. A patient refuses a simple procedure that you believe is in the patient's best interest. What two ethical principles are in conflict in this situation? a. Fidelity and justiceb. Veracity and fidelity c. Autonomy and beneficence d. Paternalism and respect for others - ANS: C