Role of Experimentation in Nursing
Healthcare professionals have a duty to experiment with new treatment methods which could be a channel to improve the currently available medication. The experimentation process should be carried out intensively to ensure that all the facts are gathered (Greenwood 112). The process is meant to enhance the safety of patients when the treatment is finally offered to patients in various healthcare facilities. However, experimentation should be carried out wisely to avoid breaching the nursing ethics. The ethics require researchers to always observe crucial tenets such as beneficence, non-maleficence, observe dignity and respect (Ghoshal and Paul 194). If the experimentation leads to harm or death, the researchers may face legal liability since their actions resulted to harm compared to enhancing care (Harper, Katherine and Nicolas 286). For example, due care should be taken while trying out new medication on patients who have multiple chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure since complications may lead to organ failure.
Human experimentation is considered unethical in nursing if the various ethical principles are not followed. The principles include obtaining informed consent from a person, providing truthful information and avoiding extreme experiments that may harm patients in the name of research (Greenwood 115). Human experimentation is different compared to other forms of research that may involve animals. The reason is that the nursing field considers the life of a person as a sacred gift from the creator and thus it should be preserved. The researcher has the responsibility of obtaining consent from a person or patient. The consent should be obtained upon providing truthful information. For example, most of the human experimentations conducted in the United States are considered unethical and illegal since they were carried out without the informed consent of a patient (Greenwood 118). Therefore, although experimentation may lead to better treatment procedures, it is necessary to take precautions by observing nursing ethics.
Works Cited
Ghoshal, Nishan, and Paul O. Wilkinson. “Flowers for Algernon: The Ethics of Human Experimentation on the Intellectually Disabled.” Psychiatria Danubina, 29.Suppl 3 (2017): 194-195.
Greenwood, Jennifer. “Voices in medicine: Ethics, human rights, and medical experimentation.” Medicine, Health and Being Human. Routledge, 2018. 109-122.
Harper, Luke, Katherine W. Herbst, and Nicolas Kalfa. “Ethical issues in research: Human and animal experimentation.” Journal of Pediatric Urology 14.3 (2018): 286.
