Ethics in Practice: Nurses' Ethical Considerations in a Pandemic Or Other Emergency--Part II

The nursing profession plays an integral role in all aspects of emergencies, including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery" (CNA, 2007, p. 1). The following examples highlight some of the different challenges that nurses may experience in relation to a pandemic or other emergency. * Shelley works in the emergency department in a large urban hospital. She is a single mother with two small children. During an influenza pandemic, she is torn by apparent conflicts among the financial need to work, her responsibilities to her employer and patients, and her worries that she will become infected and in turn infect her children.