A client is in extreme pain after he was involved in a motor vehicle accident, and morphine has been ordered every hour for pain

Question

The nurse injects saline into the client's IV line and takes the morphine for herself. The nurse is violating which principle of ethics?
a. Autonomy
b. Utilitarianism
c. Beneficence
d. Dilemmas

Answer 1

ANS: C
Correct: Beneficence is providing benefit to others by promoting their good. In general terms, to be beneficent is to promote goodness, kindness, and charity. By taking the client's pain medication and substituting saline, the nurse did harm, not good, for this client.
Incorrect:
a. Autonomy is the principle of respect for the individual person; the nurse does not respect someone that he or she is inflicting harm upon.
b. Utilitarianism is the principle that assumes that an action is right if it leads to the greatest possible balance of good consequences or to the least possible balance of bad consequences. Because the client's pain medication was taken from him, the consequences were all bad.
d. Dilemmas are not included as a principle of ethics.