• Levels of health care

- Preventative health care focuses on educating and equipping clients to reduce

and control risk factors of disease. Examples include programs that promote

immunization, stress management, and seat belt use.

- Primary health emphasizes health promotion, and includes prenatal and wellbaby care, nutrition counseling, and disease control. This level of care is based on

a sustained partnership between the client and the provider. Examples include

office or clinic visits and scheduled school or work-centered screenings (Vision,

hearing, obesity).

- Secondary health care includes the diagnosis and treatment of emergency, acute

illness, or injury. Examples include care that is given in hospital settings

(inpatient and emergency departments), diagnostic centers, or emergent care

centers.

- Tertiary health care involves the provision or specialized highly technical care.

Examples include oncology centers and burn centers.

- Restorative health care involves intermediate follow up care for restoring health.

Examples include home health care, rehabilitation centers, and in-home respite

care.

 Nursing ethical principles

o Autonomy

- Ability of the client to make personal decisions, even when those decisions may

not be in the clients own best interest.

o Beneficence

- Agreement that the care given is in the best interest of the client; taking positive

actions to help others.

o Fidelity

- Agreement to keep ones promise to the client about care that was offered.

o Justice

- Fair treatment in matters related to physical and psychosocial care and use of

resources.

o Nonmaleficience

- Avoidance of harm or pain as much as possible when giving treatments.

o Veracity

- It is the basis of the trust relationship established between a patient and a health

care provider.

• Ethical decision making in nursing

o Ethical dilemmas are problems about which more than one choice can be made and the

choice made is influenced by the values and beliefs of the decision makers. These are

common in health care, and nurses must be prepared to apply ethical theory and decision

making to ethical problems.

o A problem is an ethical dilemma if:

- It cannot be solved by a review of scientific data.

- It involves a conflict between two moral imperatives.

- The answer will have a profound effect on the situation/client.