Introduction: Ethics in nursing is expressed as a holistic approach to preservation and respect of dignity and integrity of the patient. To act ethically, healthcare professionals must consider the patient's life in the broadest sense. A large number of ethical dilemmas are encountered in the field of pediatrics. Some of these are problems with the child's consent, the child's ability to make decisions about his own treatment, pain management problems, respect for the family and the child, and breaking bad news. Purpose: The aim of the thesis is to present the most common ethical dilemmas that nurses encounter in the care of children. Methods: A descriptive method of work was used in the thesis, with a review of professional literature. Literature was searched in English and Slovenian. Foreign literature in the English language was searched in the databases PubMed/Medline and Science Direct. The areas of the literature search were divided into: communication with the child, child autonomy, pain relief and pediatric palliative care. Slovene literature was searched in the Google Scholar portal and in the online archive of Obzornik zdravstvene nege. The criterion for including articles in the literature review was published between 2010 and 2022, 16 articles were included in the final literature review. Results: All ethical dilemmas begin with communication between the nurse and the patient, in our case the child, family and parents, and the rest of the healthcare team. The main characteristics that must be included in communication with the child are: patience, clear instructions, provision of time, additional explanations, and use of silence. It is necessary to provide the child with enough time to express his feelings. One of the important dilemmas that often arise in Slovenian hospitals is the lack of space for a confidential conversation with the child and relatives. A special type of ethical dilemma that was highlighted by nurses is the provision of information in the case of shared custody or in the case where one of the parents did not want the other to receive the information. The main dilemma that arises when ensuring a child's autonomy is whether we carry out the procedure that the child needs, but does not agree to. Physical restraint of children has often appeared as one of the most controversial topics, as it can be understood as a dilemma in which our duty to carry out a certain procedure conflicts with the child's wishes. In the field of pain relief, the correct assessment of the child's pain is of utmost importance. It is ethically and morally questionable when a nurse, if she has the knowledge and tools to relieve pain, does not perform it properly. Pediatric palliative care is where ethical dilemmas arise most often. There is a dilemma of how can health care workers do their jobs with quality, when they are mentally incapable of doing so. Accepting death is even more challenging when it comes to a child. A dilemma arose again: If the parents want the treatment to continue, but the medical team considers that palliative care is more appropriate, how to bring this closer to the family. Discussion and conclusion: When we talk about quality nursing care, it also includes respect for ethical principles. The field of child health care brings a huge number of ethical dilemmas that can be solved or prevented. Considering this results, it would be necessary to introduce topics such as pediatric palliative care, the development of the child, and its cognitive abilities into the very process of nurse education. In clinical practice, the most important thing is family-oriented nursing, appropriate communication within the medical team, with the child's family and the child himself.
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