Introduction: Nurses are exposed to difficult decisions and ethical conflicts in the nursing care of an oncology patient. The care of oncology patients is complex and requires multidisciplinary treatment at all levels of health care. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to present the areas of oncology nursing that are most exposed to ethical challenges and to define the role of nurses in oncology from an ethical point of view. Methods: A descriptive method of work with a systematic review of professional and scientific domestic and foreign literature was used. We focused on four selected areas of oncology nursing related to ethics: communication, autonomy, dignity, and pain. The time frame covered literature from 2010 to 2021. Literature with free access was searched in databases Medline and Science Direct and in the Google Scholar web portal. In the final analysis 16 articles were included. Results: Communication with an oncology patient often involves reporting bad news, which makes nurses uncomfortable. Lack of communication skills, time and knowledge are common causes of inadequate delivery of information to an oncology patient. The ethical concern of the nurse is to defend the patient's interests and to include the patient as an active participant in their own treatment. The mental and physical problems of patients as the disease progresses reduce their satisfaction with life, which patients may perceive as a loss of dignity. The role of the family is an indispensable element of psychosocial support for a cancer patient. Family members are often less inclined to fully inform the patient about his health condition, survival time and prognosis in order to protect him from psychosocial stress. The treatment of pain is often unsatisfactory due to the lack of knowledge of nurses about pain therapy and its effectiveness. Ethical conflicts that arise during the care of oncology patients can cause nurses emotional burnout and dissatisfaction at work. Discussion and conclusion: Improving empathic communication and skills of pain management would help to improve care of cancer patients. The physical and psychosocial hardships of cancer patients affect their dignity and autonomy, so it is important that nurses defend their rights and maintain the integrity of each individual. Self-reflection and supervision of ethical dilemmas within the medical team could help reduce the emotional overload of oncology nurses. Comprehensive care for an oncology patient also includes the treatment of psychological and spiritual needs, including family cooperation to help the patient cope with a serious illness.
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