ABSTRACT
Although the need for ethical standards in the nursing profession has been recognized since as early as 1903, not until 1950 was a code of ethical principles adopted by American Nursing Association (ANA) members. The AORN Special Committee on Ethics was formed in 1991 to identify ethical issues in perioperative nursing and recommend educational strategies for addressing them. Formulation, publication, and distribution of the ANA Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements--Explications for Perioperative Nurses resulted from the work of this committee.
Subject(s)
Ethics, Nursing , Operating Room Nursing , Practice Guidelines as Topic , American Nurses' Association , Faculty, Nursing , Humans , Nursing Staff , Nursing, Supervisory , United StatesABSTRACT
The AIDS epidemic is now in its second decade and shows no sign of relenting. Unfortunately, however, the AORN study shows that perioperative nurses' knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS is not adequate to enable them to provide patient care while maintaining safe practices. Focused educational programs should be made available to perioperative nurses to help them apply universal precautions and OSHA standards to everyday practice. Perioperative nurses must become knowledgeable about the disease and sensitive to the needs of patients who have this illness. All nurses have a special obligation to care for all patients; education and management strategies that enable exploration of values, fears, and prejudices will help nurses understand their own beliefs and those of other individuals. Recommendations from this study may be viewed as a starting point for this perioperative education.