Daily Dose of Ethical Dilemmas

Nurses face all kinds of dilemmas every day – even ethical issues. Wherever they function, they are hurdled with ethical decisions that have a great impact on them and their patients. Before delving more into the topic, what is an Ethical Dilemma exactly?

“Ethical dilemmas, also known as moral dilemmas, are situations in which there are two choices to be made, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion.”
Simply put, there is no right or wrong decision in the situation just decisions based on what you stand for and what you believe in. But since everyone is entitled to their own opinions and not all people share the same beliefs hence, a dilemma is born.

Pro-choice vs Pro-life. This issue greatly affects a majority, if not all, of the nurses around the world. Whether you are for or against abortion, your brains will surely get racked once a situation is presented to you. How do you expect a nurse to care for someone who has had an abortion when the nurse is anti-abortion and considers it an act of murder?  But on the other hand, what if the fetus inside the womb could compromise the mother’s health how can you not consider an abortion? You see, even if you already have a firm stand on things. Everything still greatly varies upon the situation on hand.

Justice. This refers to the obligation to be fair to all people. That means, whether rich or poor they are entitled to the same health services needed to reach optimum health. But that’s already a given (though still an issue at hand). What I’d like to point out in Justice is caring for publicly judged individuals – thieves, murderers, rapists, and convicts. How can one care for people like these if you know that they’ve committed hateful crimes, murdered hundreds or even thousands of innocent victims? Would you just look the other way and follow the oath you’ve taken or would you neglect your profession and refuse to care for these individuals?

When to tell what. Especially when it comes to the “truth” nurses are torn between the patient and his/her family. If the family insists on keeping the information from the patient because of fear that the prognosis will bring harm to their loved one. How do you successfully avoid telling the patient the truth without lying to them?

These are just some of the many ethical issues they face in their daily life. But one thing's for sure, being a nurse is everything but easy. It’s already hard to make decisions on your own, how much more if there are a lot of factors to consider not to mention your own license at stake? Nurses don’t make judgments involving only their personhood, but also for the sake of others well-being  Imagine the pressure and responsibility on the healthcare providers’ shoulders. How do they keep their cool and sanity when their on the edge of breaking down, we are all human beings. We can only take so much, yet others are willing to stretch their own limit for others.

In the future years to come, more and more ethical dilemmas will surely arise especially how our world has advanced the past few years. Everyone has their own definition of “right or wrong” and of what and what not to do.

I leave the judgment to your own hands and depart with this quote:

“In the end, only kindness matters.”

Reference(s):

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/

http://www.enotes.com/code-ethics-nurses-reference/code-ethics-nurses

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Managers: We Find Ways

“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.”

I came across this quote a few months ago and it immediately became one of my all time favorites. It just clarifies the confusion between both roles. But, for everyone’s sake I would elaborate more on this.

Being a manager, they would want to get things done at the shortest time possible and with the least errors made. They make sure that everything goes according to plan. Being a leader on the other hand means you have to stand up and be the better man. You have to take responsibility for your actions and be accountable for the decisions you have come upon. So in dealing with things – homework, projects, exams, your siblings, parents, friends, paramours, and even your enemies – always keep this quote in mind.

If you think you aren't ready to face the challenge of exercising power over a number of followers and subordinates yet then try practicing with yourself first. After all, change starts in you. Now, you might be thinking “How do I do that?” well, let me give you an example:

Let’s say it’s Friday and you have a test on a subject that you aren't very good at, and you know full well that you haven’t read a single page of your notes yet so you tell yourself that you would study little by little the whole week (since hypothetically you’re free the whole week, no classes and all) so you don’t have to cram things the night before your exam. You congratulate yourself for having such an ingenious plan cooked up. But before your class ends you hear your classmates talking about going on a trip for the weekends, have a beach party after that and whatnot (since well, you’re free!) and they come up and invite you with them, and hypothetically 95% of the class is coming with, what do you do? You know you have to study for this test or else you’ll flunk it big time. You’re tempted so rationalize that you would still have at least 2 days to study for it and maybe that time would be enough for you, after all how hard can it really be? You’ll just give in 200% more effort.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

Don’t just say yes on a whim. Don’t let the spur of the moment throw you off your main course of action. Think back to the quote written above… What would a manager or a leader do? You have 2 options.

1. You say yes, bring a book with you and maybe read a few pages on your way and before you sleep every night. And let’s say, hypothetically you succeed in doing this 50% of the time.
2. You say no, and stay at home. Study a couple of pages a day and eventually get the hang of the subject.

At the day of the test, all you hear inside your class is how the trip turned out to be a total success and how much everyone enjoyed it. Now, you would either be included in the conversation or not and just feel miserable and out of place in a corner (but hey, at least you studied well right?).

Basically, what I’m saying is everything works differently among people. Some may ace the test even if they went to that certain vacation and others still may fail the test if they stayed at home anyway. So it’s really important to know yourself first – know your strengths and weaknesses and start there. If you think you can pass even if you party first, then by all means go! On the other hand, if you know you can’t take the pressure of having fun and studying at the same time – skip the party stay at home and get to work. Either way, at the end of the day you are the only one who can really tell if your decision was worth it. Just remember to man up and take the credit whether you succeed or not.

So, what did you choose? Does that make you a leader or manager in your own little way?

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Leadership: a 90s kid's point of view

There has been an unresolved debate going on for ages about leaders; are they born or made? Actually it’s both – but more of the latter. Although there are certain qualities that predispose other people to become a great leader someday, if they aren't nurtured then those qualities just stay stagnant inside that person thus never actually putting it to good use -- in other words, useless. 

So how do we wake these certain qualities that are deep within us? Training, Education, and sheer Will and Determination can go a loooong way. Want to become the next big thing in leadership but don’t know where to start? Well read on.

If you think you have what it takes to be a great leader today or maybe sometime in the near future then that’s great! The first step to success is always believing in yourself. And if you don’t think you can do it then you better start changing the way you think. Big changes start small, if you want to change the world, start by changing yourself. 

I’m not a world leader or anything of that sort, but I am one of the people that will change the world someday – the youth. We keep hearing and reading about Leadership from successful adults that have made their mark in society, but we rarely hear from our generation.

Since I made it clear that I don’t have the credibility to rant about what you should or should not do to become a successful leader, I’m going to stick with the basics and remind you what to consider when you are (or plan to be) a leader. Namely: Leader, Followers, Situation and Communication.

Leader – as a leader you must know your skills and limitations. Remember, it’s the followers that decide whether you’re a great leader or not. If you want to be respected then you must respect your followers. If your followers feel threatened and rigid around you then there’s something amiss. As a leader you must also be versatile and open for new ideas and suggestions from your followers. Remember, 2 heads are better than 1. 

Followers – without followers, one cannot become a leader, this is where your versatility comes in handy. Everyone is unique, and different people need different kinds of leadership styles and guidance. Others may need more motivation than most. So it’s very important that you know your people! You must know how they tick, what makes them work and how they work.

Situation – every situation is different, it’s not every day that things turn out how you want them to. Thus you must know how to make the best of what you have. Versatility paired with good judgment will let you overcome this hurdle. 

Communication – one of the most important attributes you must possess in order to become and exceptional leader. Good communication skills lead to motivation, inspiration, trust and respect between leaders and their followers. When leaders communicate with their followers, they start to motivate them into working into a team in order to have higher chances of success. Having continuous communication and checking up on followers keeps them more inspired and motivated thus pushing them harder to work and raises the rate of productivity.

With these four basic concepts in mind, you are one step closer to becoming the exceptional leader you ought to become. 

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PALAKASAN 2012

I wanted to come up with a better and catchy title, but I realized that it's my last Palakasan in IIT and I wanted to be straight to the point. After months of waiting, weeks of preparing with intense training and some days of cramming the Palakasan 2012 finally arrived and has now ended. What a fleeting moment. We lost so many sports events to unexpected competitors but still, we held on. We did not give up and we did not let this minor (OK maybe not so minor) bump get us down. And in the end, we prevailed. We won:

• 2nd Place in Badminton Women's category
• 4th Place in Sepak Takraw
• 2nd Place in the Quiz Bowl
• 4th Place in Wannabe
• 1st in Creative Dancing
• 1st in Chamber Theater (which I was a part of, I was the one holding the door and helped with the script a bit. Did I mention that we are the very first college to win this newest literary event?)
• MS IIT 2012
• 1st Runner-up in MR IIT 2012 (Our candidates are siblings, writing this down coz I wanna remember it)

And a couple more awards I forgot! But most importantly, despite our very little population of less than 500 students... We rank 3rd place in the overall results tied with CSM! Twas all thanks to the students and faculty and staff of the college that we were able to yet again reach 3rd place. ONE BIG BITE!

Now that the Palakasan has ended, we are now back to reality meaning... Classes, Exams, Duties, Review, and a Thesis paper to continue on. It was fun while it lasted, up next CON WEEK! We may have worked united through Palakasan to reach our goal, now it's time to compete among ourselves to hone our skills for another battle next year. :)