Ethical Dilemma. Health, Medicine, Nursing Assignment

Ethical Dilemma
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Introduction
Nursing practice entails the day to day activities carried out by a nurse, especially in relation to a patient. In the nursing field, the main goal is always to ensure the best possible outcomes for the patient. Nothing gives more satisfaction to a nurse than seeing a patient recover back to full health and out of the hospital bed. That is exactly what gives the profession meaning. Just like any other profession, it comes with its ups and downs, moments of triumph as well as moments of trial. The biggest challenge however usually comes in the form of ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas usually put nurses in very stressful and compromising situations, since they present nurses with scenarios whereby they have to take the hard decisions, against the backdrop of whether it is right or wrong. As part of my experiences as a student, I came across certain instances that posed ethical dilemmas.
The Story
During one of my clinical practice routines, I came across a patient who had been brought in about a month earlier. As is the norm, she was assigned her nurse, Alice, who was supposed to look after all her needs as well as basic medication. I was therefore not in any way supposed to be part of her schedule. So it just happened that Alice had sent me to clean up and take the records of her patient as she had been summoned to attend to some other emergency within the same hospital. The patient asked me about her condition and whether she would be able to make a speedy recovery within a month because she had several things to do.
Upon looking at her records, I could see several things that pointed to something long-term, almost terminal. She was suffering from breast cancer yet Alice had not told her. I looked at her and just informed her that I wasn’t the nurse in charge of her and that such information could only be communicated by Alice. The patient then told me that she had also asked the other nurse the same question, but got no response. I had to get some words to calm her down, as she was beginning to become anxious.
I was bothered about the issue and decided to check some of the documents of Alice while she was still at the seminar. Upon return to the nursing bay, I found some documents of Alice at the desk and after checking I discovered that Alice was not trained as a nurse but as a teacher. She was incompetent in much of her actual job specifications. I was worried, considering the sensitive and highly delicate nature of the condition her patient was suffering from. Any wrong prescription or management would endanger the life of the patient. I even thought that it was perhaps the reason she was fond of giving much of her duties to interns and fresh recruits. As an ethical person, I was supposed to report such an incident to the management. I was also supposed to tell the patient of her condition but I was not the assigned nurse.
The Ethical Dilemma/Issue in the Story
From my story, two ethical dilemmas stand out; the disclosure of information to the patient and dealing with an incompetent colleague. Disclosure of information to the patient is quite a tricky and trying scenario since it entails telling the patient the truth about ...