The nursing shortage and ethics: up front and personal.
In times of crisis it is often that values and beliefs and, subsequently, our ethics are challenged. Authors in OJIN have addressed some of the ethical issues that nurses face in relation to crises in health care. For example, P. J. Maddox (1998) addressed ethical issues surrounding economic constraints and scarce resources. In this current issue of OJIN, Cheryl Peterson (2001) writes of the ethical dilemma nurses face in trying to comply with the Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statement, 1985 in light of the present nursing shortage. We invite you to read these and the other OJIN articles on the shortage and then submit to this column a story about how the nursing shortage has ethically affected you or your patients/clients.
Silva
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MC
George Mason University, Virginia, USA. msilva@gmu.edu
Ludwick
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D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D009726:Nurses / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D014481:United States