Introduction
Ethics guide a practitioner in a healthcare setup to assure and deliver equivalent care with compassion. The dynamic dimension of a Doctorate of Nurse Practice (DNP) project is full of ethical dilemmas, especially against prevalent health disparity and deficiency in culturally competent care delivery. In this regard, these issues would guide towards an increase in the demands of nurses to face complex ethical terrain to provide services fulfilling their professional commitment towards patient welfare. However, as we delve deeper into a conversation about health disparities and morally sticky wickets within the most proficient delivery of care as part of DNP projects, these questions and issues must be considered. Therefore, this paper delves into these questions and seeks to determine some ethical imperatives associated with DNP practice related to creating an ethical framework meant to change practice to improve the most critical areas of healthcare. In connecting the ethical dimensions of health disparities and competent care delivery, we hope to understand a further proclamation of moral obligations guiding the DNP practitioner’s quest for equity in healthcare delivery. Ethicality would demand a decrease in disparities in care through DNP projects focused on cultural competence to attain equitable and honest care delivery within diverse environments (Moynihan et al., 2019).
Addressing Nursing Ethical Concerns
Health disparities as an ethical concern and culturally relevant care delivery. This DNP project problem was identified only after a critical evaluation of Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP) projects dealing with health disparities as a principal ethical concern and the solutions on how to deal with it appropriately. The problem is realized because patients come from different cultural backgrounds, possessing unique practices and beliefs that affect their healthcare healthcare healthcare needs. These diversities are the basic principles of ethics; understanding and dealing with these diversities serve as guidance in this regard for the DNP practitioner. Cultural competence reflects the accumulation of observation and sensibility regarding cultural disparity. This also indicates dynamically changing delivery modalities so that attendants are appropriately focused on serving patients from all populations. Giving high priority to cultural competence helps assure DNP practice that the services provided through interventions are culturally congruent, respectful, and effective. From this perspective, it is important under this Principle that justice be offered to the patient whereby the existence of the patient’s cultural identity and choices should be maintained or acknowledged. Practice Implication: Cultural competence is crucial for problems of justice, equity, and patient-centered issues the synthesis reflects in DNP projects. It is ethically driven very strongly by the fact that DNP practitioners remain watchful of the rights and welfare of their own cultures as much of others. This updated cultural competency that ought to be possessed among DNP practitioners is expected to align well with the effort to decrease these health disparities and general quality in the effective delivery of healthcare services (Hinch et al., 2020).
Scenario 1
In a DNP project aimed at enhancing postpartum health care for immigrant women, a nurse practitioner comes to realize that it was quite difficult for one to offer culturally competent care due to adherence to health beliefs and use of language as required. For example, the fact that traditional Western practices are inexorable to health procedures has been a challenge perceived by the practitioner in her effort to seek help.
Solution
The nurse practitioner overcomes such difficulties through liaising with people like interpreters or cultural liaisons that make the communication between the health care provider and patient smooth. Moreover, he carries out a cultural competence orientation program for the staff working under him to develop awareness regarding patients’ different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. Such culturally sensitive approaches tailor the delivery of the immigrant woman’s care to her special needs, like other native women, through offering alternative therapy, respect for cultural rituals, and improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction (Álvaro Aranda et al., 2021).
Scenario 2
A DNP project is subject to content that a large number of people, most being indigenous in a rural community, need quality mental health services. However, several challenges render efforts to provide mental health services to the indigenous population abortive.
Solution
The DNP team collaborates with the indigenous leaders as well as indigenous mental healthcare providers in coming up with culturally related mental programs and support. This would be through incorporating indigenous healing routines, elders during counseling, and outreach that would respect their clients’ culture. The DNP project shall ensure that the provision of mental healthcare to indigenous communities is at the community level accessible, acceptable, and effectively provided. Collaborative participation and workshops with the indigenous people assist in fostering trust in the approach and strengthening interrelations between the healthcare service personnel and them, eventually yielding good effects on the health of the indigenous people by plummeting the gap within healthcare services (McCauley-Witt et al., 2020).
Scenario 3
The problem clearly described by the DNP project will be the issue of disparities in access to prenatal care for low-income pregnant women within one suburban community. Nevertheless, the project fails drastically because there is no transportation possibility for these women to reach the clinic on appointments.
Solution
To address this barrier, the DNP collaborates with local transport services and community-based organizations to provide free or discounted transport coupons to pregnant women who want to access prenatal services. Acceptance of telemedicine options is also assessed to afford virtual transport to prenatal care visits accessed through telecommunications if a woman raises a barrier regarding access to transport. The DNP project would ensure that women can, under its application, access improved prenatal care when they are pregnant, which will also remove the transportation barrier and exacerbate these disparities (Wu et al., 2021).
Adopting and maintaining ethical PrinciplesPrinciple
Following the correction of health disparities and cultural competence in DNP projects, it can be practical if the ethical standards are addressed and maintained at all times. Every DNP practitioner and healthcare organization should put forward 100% commitment towards continuous attainment and training of the maximum standards in ethical decision-making, cultural competence skills, and healthcare disparities. Workshops, seminars, and continued education programs must embrace full inclusivity based on a general principle of care, specifically for them to attend to DNP practitioners on the premise of giving or offering ethical care and culturally sensitive care delivery (Baumann & Cabassa, 2020).
The culture of ethical reflection and dialogue should continue to be perpetuated among the staff for healthcare. To exchange views and arrive at ethical solutions concerning common problems and the same picture. Besides, healthcare organizations should develop policies and guidelines to promote cultural competence and reduce health disparities. This could mean instituting diversity awareness programs, cultural competency standards being part of staff appraisals, and resourcing projects aimed at community involvement and partnership. Integrating ethical standards within the mainstream institutional culture and day-to-day administration of the DNP projects would certainly add to getting the right attention to ethical concerns as decisions are made. This approach cannot only optimize the delivery of care based on the needs of patients and human compassion but also enable a team within a health service context to participate with the highest levels of responsibility and integrity. DNP practitioner methods to ensure the lessening and elimination of health disparities related to training in cultural competence that involves work across disciplinary boundaries to impact organizational policy towards achieving care delivery that is both effective and very sensitive to culture and provides equitable access for all patients to the best care available to enhance health (Baumann & Cabassa, 2020).
Conclusion
There is also an ethical need to address health disparities and improve cultural competence about equitable and compassionate care delivery within the context of Doctorate of Nurse Practice (DNP) projects. Reviewing the comprehensive interface of nursing ethics and DNP practice, this essay has discussed ethical principles central to resolving urgent nursing-related health challenges. This will guide cultural competence and social justice, respect for patient autonomy, and challenge, from the DNP practitioner’s point of view, to be carried out ethically, with integrity and compassion related to healthcare disparities. Then, ethical considerations may form part of the very fiber of the project itself through collaboration, education, and support in that quest from their organizational base to guide them toward health equity and enhanced patient outcomes. More significantly, DNP practitioners should remain committed and forward-thinking in ensuring that ethical practice and continuing reflection on actions guide the practice besides providing high care standards. In so doing, graduates of the DNP program would fulfill their obligation as professionals to make an ethical contribution to the enhancement of nursing practice that would benefit all patients’ health. Upholding ethical ideals, including cultural competence, justice advocacy, and patient autonomy, is critical for DNP projects. These shall then guide the practitioners in undertaking the many complexities surrounding disparities in healthcare provisions and put fair access to care and patient empowerment into place for equal care delivery and general health (Oleribe et al., 2019).
References
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Hinch, B. K., Livesay, S., Stifter, J., & Brown, F. (2020). Academic-practice partnerships: Building a sustainable model for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) projects. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(6), 569–578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2020.08.008
McCauley-Wittl, C. L., Mullins, I., Lee, E., & Hart, V. (2020, July 1). Improving nurse practitioner awareness and utilization of mental health community support services and Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services. Scholars’ Repository. http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/653
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Wu, K. K., Lopez, C., & Nichols, M. (2021). Virtual visits in prenatal care: An integrative review. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 67(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.13284
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