What is a time when you or someone you know experienced a clash between professional duties and familial duties? Reference a professional code such as that of the American Nurses Association or American Bar Association in explaining the clash. What moral values should have been used in that case? Why those values? What would social contract ethics have said to have done? Why would social contract ethics say that? Note what you feel is the best course of action.
Prioritizing what the right thing to do when working in the healthcare field is very crucial and important. With that being said a time i know where someone experienced a clash between professional duties and familial duties was when my cousin who was a healthcare provider was needed at the hospital to work as they were short-staffed during the covid pandemic but at the same time that was happening her mother was diagnosed with Cancer and needs to get surgery. She obviously needed to be there for her mother as there wasn’t anyone else to take care of her besides her father but she also had to care for her patients but cant risk the idea of going to work and attending her patients and possible transmitting the virus to her mother who just got out of lumpectomy surgery and undergoing radiation. In the American Nurses Association it is said that “carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession” (Gaines, 2022). With that being said my cousin knew if she would have stayed at work she wouldn’t have been able to give the proper care and give her best as her mother would be at the back of her mind and she would be worried about her. The moral values that should have been used in this scenario is to do what the best option is. For my cousin this was a difficult decision to make as her profession is everything to her but at the same time so is her mother. She decided to help her mother for the beginning of her treatment until she was able to be okay on her own then immediately went back to work to help her patients and do her job. The social contract theory is the idea that “morality consists in the rules that rational people will accept on the condition that others accept them as well” (Rachels, 2018, pg. 93). In this scenario i feel like the social contract theorists would do the same as most people would drop anything for their if they are in a situation like this where they have no one during this difficult time. I feel as if i would do the same but then immediately return back to work once everything is all good.
Rachels, J. (2018). The Elements of Moral Philosophy (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US).
Gaines, K. (2022, November 4). What is the Nursing Code of Ethics? Nurse.org. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://nurse.org/education/nursing-code-of-ethics/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20five%20codes,justice%2C%20and%20privacy%2Fconfidentiality.
