Moral Challenges in Nursing Practices

Abstract

The job of nurses is in the heart of healing and medical care, where the members form an essential element of health care. Together with other healthcare providers, nurses offer health services to millions of people in clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, and birth centers, in which the members of this profession provide nursing assessments, nursing interventions, and counselling tailored to the clients' needs. Along with the health services provided by nurses, the principle of harm prevention is applied to optimize and protect the health of the clients besides preventing ailment and alleviating their suffering. The terminology of prevention primarily denotes the action to avoid, forestall, or circumvent a happening, conclusion, or phenomenon (1). In nursing vocabulary, prevention is referring to the practices that are set to avert illness and promote health, thus, reduces the need for further health care (2). The nurses' preventive tasks include assessment of risk, early diagnosis, early recognition of disability limitations, and the application of prescribed measures such as immunization, health teaching, and rehabilitation. On top of that, some preventive nursing interventions can also be therapeutic.