COVID-19: What Are Our Professional and Ethical Obligations to Patients and Ourselves?

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many ethical issues and challenges for nurses and others on the front lines of care. Clinicians are working under extreme circumstances, and in some instances, without the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). Nurses are also working long hours, becoming emotionally and physically drained. They have lost patients, colleagues, and some have become infected themselves. But, what are nurses’ professional and ethical obligations to patients in a pandemic? How should nurses implement these ethical obligations? And what are the limits of these obligations? Are there circumstances when are we asking too much of them? Two nurse bioethicists, Drs. Ulrich and Grady, discuss these issues and dialogue with the audience on the most pressing ethical concerns nurses are facing during this unprecedented time in our global community.