Ethical Considerations of the Advanced Practice Nurse - Dissertation Example

Ethical Considerations of the Advanced Practice Nurse Ethical Considerations of the Advanced Practice Nurse Today, the conduct of clinical research using human subjects is an issue of continuous debate in the medical industry. Owing to unimaginable changes resulting from globalization of health care and responsible for the emergence of patient-focused treatment and care, a plethora of academic research continuously identifies and isolates ethical violations carried out in research. Even though the Nuremberg Code of Ethics stipulates ethical considerations, health care practitioners should follow and implement research, it is apparent seeking consent of participants is a major ethical violation common in clinical research (Washington, 2012).

According to the Nuremburg Code of ethics, using human subjects in clinical research is ethical as long as clinical researchers adhere to various procedures and guidelines to ensure no ethical violations. In order to ensure healthcare practitioners do not routinely ignore ethical considerations, the Nuremberg Code insists human subjects should engage in clinical research voluntarily (US Department of Health & Human Services, 2005). It implies an individual should have free will to make a choice to participate in research, and their choices should be free from fraud, force, deceit, or any other form of coercion.

In addition, making appropriate choices requires comprehensive and sufficient knowledge about a particular subject matter involved in research. For this reason, a healthcare practitioner should inform patients about the purpose, duration, and nature of the experiment. The Code of Ethics insists on patient consent because this provision supports subsequent procedures and provisions of the code. In many cases, human participants consent and participate in research, but in many cases, their choices and decisions are made based on insufficient information (Washington, 2012).

For this reason, clinical researchers who ignore the need to obtain consent from human participants in research do not only violate a provision of the code, but also violate it entirely. For this reason, ethical violations in clinical research involving human subject are prevalent today. References US Department of Health & Human Services. (2005). The Nuremberg code. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/archive/nurcode.html Washington, H. A. (2012). Non-consenting adults. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_