Ethical Concerns Related to Parents who Oppose Vaccination

Ethical Concerns
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Institution
Ethical Concerns
Ethics is important in guiding the practices of people in their everyday life. The nursing profession is expected to follow ethics and at the same time work with proven evidence (Agrawal, 2013). There are situations where there would be conflict between ethics and evidence based research more so in nursing. On several occasions, nurses have to face ethical dilemma. The issue of vaccine hesitancy especially in public hospitals is common today and it frustrates nurses the most because most parents refuse to vaccinate their children. To a nurse, it may appear as if they are questioning interventions that have been proven to be the most effective and safest for their children. On the other hand, the parents have the autonomy of deciding what is best for their children but in deciding not to have their children vaccinated, it may appear as if they are undermining the efforts of the healthcare providers to improve public health (Opel et al., 2014).
In this case, it is important to know that the rights of the parents are not unlimited. It is therefore the duty of the nurse to find out if their decision puts the health of their child in jeopardy. In deciding to override the rights of the parents, there must be evidence that the child would be at a great risk if not vaccinated. There are several options available to a nurse. First, they may refuse to provide any further care for the family. Second, they may decide to continue providing care but find out ways of convincing the family to change their mind about vaccination (Opel et al., 2014). The decision made must balance with: the interest of the child, the autonomy of the parents, and the interests of other children.
Vaccination has historically been used effectively to protect infants from diseases that are vaccine-preventable even if some of the vaccines have had side effects. In light of these side effects, parents reserve the right to decide what is best for their children but with certain limitations (Leask et al., 2012). If the nurse were to refuse providing them with care, they would go to another practice where they might be treated without vaccinating their children. Normally, parents with a negative attitude towards vaccination seek care from clinicians who have less faith in vaccinations themselves.
What is best for the child is for the family to continue seeking care from those who believe in vaccinations (Opel et al., 2014). Nurses should be persuasive and try to convince the parents to accept some form of vaccination with time. At the age of 5, the child is old enough and ...