A medical surgical nurse is asked to float to a women's health unit to care for clients who are scheduled for therapeutic abortions
The nurse refuses to accept this assignment and expresses her personal beliefs as being incongruent with this medical practice. The nursing supervisor states that the unit is short-staffed and that they could really use her expertise because it just involves taking care of clients who have undergone a surgical procedure. In consideration of legal and ethical practices, can the nursing supervisor enforce this assignment?
a. The staff nurse has the responsibility of accepting any assignment that is made while working for a health care unit, so the nursing supervisor is within his or her rights to enforce this assignment.
b. Because the unit is short-staffed, the staff nurse should accept the assignment to provide care by benefit of her or his experience to clients who need care.
c. The staff nurse has expressed a legitimate concern based on his or her feelings; the nursing supervisor does not have the authority to enforce this assignment.
d. The nursing supervisor should emphasize that this assignment requires care of a surgical client for which the staff nurse is adequately trained and should therefore enforce the assignment.
ANS: C
The Nurse Practice Act allows nurses to refuse assignments that involve practices that they have expressed as being opposed to their religious, cultural, ethical, and/or moral values. Although the nursing supervisor has a right to arrange assignments, the supervisor, if made aware of a potential bias or limitation, must act accordingly and accept the nurse's position. This should be upheld regardless of staffing limitations and independent of persuasive efforts to make the nurse feel guilty for her or his stated beliefs.
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