Development of Islamic ethical framework on harm prevention in nursing practices

Abstract

This is a study of Islamic ethical responses to the moral problems of the nursing profession, particularly, the difficulties related to ethical challenges of harm prevention practices. Nowadays, nurses worldwide are using the ethical theories and models that were developed by the Western scholars to help in the decision-making process. Till now, the knowledge of nursing ethics and Islamic ethics is fragmented, lacking of work to integrate between these two. Therefore, this study attempts to integrate these two knowledge into a comprehensive framework. In doing so, this study use combined approach which incorporates, library research, textual analysis, interviews and personal communication. Based on the objectives, library research method is used to achieve the first to the fourth objectives, which are to explore the understanding of nursing practices and nursing ethics, to explore the Islamic moral teachings related to life saving and harm prevention, to examine Islamic ethical principles of moral judgments on harm prevention in healing and medical care practices, and to unveil ethical issues and moral problems of nursing profession and medical care practices, respectively. The works of Muslim scholars, particularly the works of theologians, scholars of Islamic law (fuqaha), and jurists (usul al-fuqaha) on harm prevention and medical care also has been thoroughly discussed. On the other hand, textual analysis is used to analyze some Qur’?nic verses and Hadith pertaining to harm prevention. In addition, interview with nurses, personal communication with the ethical committees and religious experts are done to achieve the fifth objective that is to analyze the nurses’ experiences of handling ethical issues in nursing practices of selected hospitals. Using all the data gathered, an Islamic ethical framework for handling ethical issues in nursing practices, which is the sixth objective of this study is integrated. ‘Islamic Ethical Framework on Handling Ethical Issues in Nursing Practices’ is a main product of this thesis. The integration of nursing ethics and Islamic ethics of knowledge in this framework could be a better alternative in dealing and solving ethical issues since nurses are always guided with only nursing ethics previously. For Muslim nurses, this ethical framework could be the right option to guide them in searching for a solution while referring to the ultimate goal of the Shari?ah. Islam with its spiritual values and holistic view plays the prominent role to embed cognitive ethical values. This makes Islamic ethical framework different from conventional theories of ethic or any conventional ethical framework, in which ethical judgment are constructed out of human desires and tendencies to bias.