Understanding Fidelity in Nursing: A Guide to Ethical Practice

Title image for the blog on fidelity in nursing

Fidelity to your patient’s well-being is the essence of nursing. It’s the quiet strength behind every act of care.” In nursing, trust is everything. Nurses have the responsibility to be loyal and supportive to their patients. Today in this blog, we will dive deep into understanding fidelity in nursing, which is the heart of nursing ethical practice.

What is Fidelity in Nursing?

Fidelity means being loyal and faithful. Fidelity in nursing means being loyal to the profession, providing quality care to the patient, keeping their promises, advocating for them, and making sure whatever they do it aligns with the highest standards and values of patient care.

Examples of Fidelity in Nursing

Let us now explore how trust and commitment shape exceptional care.

  • Maintaining confidentiality
  • Advocacy
  • Honesty

Maintaining confidentiality

Confidentiality means keeping it private. The duty of the nurse is to keep the patient’s personal health information private. Confidentiality is the keystone of ethical nursing practice. Patients sometimes share sensitive and personal information with the nurses, nurses should keep that information private and not share it with anyone. How ever there are some exceptions such as they can only share that information with patients consent, if a patient possesses danger to itself or others, or if there are any legal requirements.

Example:

Nurses should always speak to their patient in a private room or make sure no one else is around who can listen to their conversation. For example, if nurse overhear colleagues discussing the patient’s sensitive health information, it is the responsibility of the nurse to remind them to go to a private room.

Exception:

  • They can share the information with patient consent.
  • If the information shared possesses a threat to patient or others.
  • If the information shared is required by law.

 

 

Advocacy

Another example of fidelity in nursing is advocacy. Advocacy means standing up for your patients’ rights if you see that they are being treated differently. in other case if they see that the patient cannot speak for them selves because the patient cannot talk then it is the nurse duty to make sure that the nurses must advocate for their patients’ needs and preferences.

Example:

If the patient has dementia and does not understand the treatment options, then the nurse committed to fidelity will take time to make sure if the patient wants the treatment or not. She should communicate with the family members, understand the patient’s wishes from previous conversations to make sure what the patient wants. Nurses committed to fidelity should always advocate for their patients and make sure that they get the right treatment.

Honesty

Fidelity in nursing requires honesty. This means the nurses should always be honest and transparent to their patient so that the patient can make informed decisions about their treatment and care. Nurses should be honest with their patients about their health information, treatment options, potential outcomes about their treatment and more.

Example:

If the nurse administers the wrong dose of medication to the patient, the nurse should not hide it. Instead it is the duty of the nurse to share the information with the patient, even if the error made were very small and had no consequences. This will also help the patients to build trust.

Challenges of Fidelity in Nursing Practice

Fidelity in nursing can be complex for example:

  • The nurse might face a situation where their commitment to patients, patient family and healthcare workers might conflict.
  • Resource limitation is another challenge for the nurses as there might be a time when there is scarce of resources and the nurse must decide who needs it the most.

 

 

What are the strategies to uphold Fidelity?

Some the strategies to uphold fidelity in nursing are:

  • Clear communication
  • Being up to date with the latest medical ethics in nursing.
  • Maintaining professional boundaries.

Fidelity vs Veracity in nursing

Fidelity and veracity are two different concepts of ethical principles in nursing. Both are important for building trust between patients and nurses.

Fidelity: Being loyal to the patients and keeping promises.

Veracity: Always telling the truth and sharing accurate information with the patient. Veracity in nursing is to always give accurate information about the treatment to the patients so that the patients can make informed decisions and know their options.

Both are important parts of nursing practice and contribute to patient centered care.

Beneficence and non-maleficence in nursing

Beneficence in nursing means helping the patients and providing them best treatment and care. Non maleficence in nursing means preventing others from being hurt.

Conclusion

Understanding fidelity is important as it is the cornerstone of ethical principles. It is the duty of the nurses to be loyal and honest with their patients. nurses should always advocate for their patients and maintain confidentiality. No doubt the fidelity in nursing is complex and sometimes challenging. in this blog we have discussed the strategies of how to uphold fidelity in nursing is with clear communication and more.

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