Ethical and Cultural Consideration: Role of Nurses in Response to Flu Pandemic - Research Paper Example

certain ethical and cultural considerations that are involved in developing the public health response. This paper focuses on an ethical consideration and a cultural consideration for a public health response to the flu epidemic based on the public health role. Moreover, the paper will demonstrate the role of a nurse in each of the considerations.

Being prepared for the flu epidemic is crucial since it ensures that the public health system can mitigate the effects of the pandemic. However, certain ethical and cultural considerations must be deliberated on while deciding the appropriate measures. Nurses play an important role in the response to the flu pandemic. Understanding the ethical and cultural considerations as well as the role of the nurse is thus important (Debruin, 2012).

One ethical consideration involved in the moral commitment to justice and alleviating any barriers that could hinder some people from accessing healthcare. Ethical guidance to public health response to pandemics should be concerned with justice. Justice is important while dealing with pandemics and it entails disbursement of common advantages as well as equal sharing of burdens. However, justice should be accompanied by reasonableness in that the caregivers should prioritize the needs of the affected population based on their level of vulnerability. Therefore, the public health system should make a pledge to serve all the affected persons with first priority being given to the most affected without ignoring those likely to be affected by the epidemic. In a flu pandemic, nurses have a role of enhancing justice by ensuring that they focus on the needs of the most disadvantaged and give equal priority to all irrespective of their ethical background (Debruin, 2012).

During pandemics, the public health personnel has to make decisions, which may conflict individual interests with the community's interests. However, the response must take into account cultural considerations to ensure that even the minority groups access adequate care. One cultural consideration is the cultural diversity of a nation (Institute of Medicine, et al., 2008).

 It is important for the caregivers to consider differences in behaviors and beliefs regarding flu pandemics across the different cultures. Factors such as health literacy regarding the epidemic in relation to the different cultures should be assessed. Moreover, understanding cultural diversity will enable the caregivers to communicate effectively with the public. In relation to cultural differences, nurses have a role to play during a flu epidemic. The nurses should be involved in educating the affected population by enlightening them with the facts associated with the flu epidemic. Moreover, the nurses can enlighten the public on how to detect the presence of flu and how to respond to it to prevent the further spread of the epidemic (Institute of Medicine, et al., 2008).