Resource allocation decisions in critical care nursing.

One of the major challenges for critical care nurses is to distribute their professional services in a manner that is consistent with the moral imperatives of nursing. The central values of respect for individual patients, patient-centered beneficence, full beneficence, and justice must be woven together into an ethical framework that assists nurses in allocating their skills. Professional organizations, such as the AACN, are actively trying to order this ethical disorder by proposing guidelines that, on the one hand, acknowledge societal interests in cost-effective utilization of health care resources, and on the other hand, safeguard the interests and well-being of individual patients. In addition to the guidance from professional organizations, health care institutions should address the inequities in health care by developing policies that guide the health care team through an ethical decision-making process. Nurses, as members of the multidisciplinary health care team and as members of an essential and scarce resource, should participate in formulating these directives. Not only is bedside and institutional involvement important, but participation at the local, state, and national levels will empower nurses to influence decisions of resource allocation at the micro and macro levels.