This assignment will incorporate professional reflection of the student’s experience. Within your reflective essay:

·         Provide a brief summary of your selected case study (setting the scene);

·         Briefly compare and contrast differences between moral and ethical reasoning from your scenario;

·         Outline and apply specific ethical principles to your scenario that may assist in guiding your subsequent nursing care.

Referencing is essential for this reflective essay, as students are required to seek confirmation of learning with the literature. For example, this may include best practice documents, journal and research articles, texts, hospital polices and guidelines, legislations, registration authority documents, to name a few. Your writing should demonstrate evidence of your skills as a reflective practitioner, highlighting your ability to reflect on events in an analytical and critical way.

The following formatting/presentation specifications must be followed for assignment submissions:

·         Arial or Calibri, 11 font

·         Portrait orientation, A4 with 2cm margins

·         1.5 line spacing

·         Word limits are strict within a +/- 10% variation of the word count (not including end text references)

·         Copy of assignment to be retained by the student

2.    Compare and contrast differences between moral and ethical reasoning. Define the terms and discuss the challenges.

·         First start by outlining each of the ethical principles and then discuss how each applies to your case study. You may note that only some of the ethical principles apply to your example. If only some principles apply, then you will need to expand on these in more depth. Note however, that the marker may envisage that more principles do apply to your example and you may lose marks if you have not been able to reflect and apply these in enough depth.

·         The main part of the reflective essay should be outlining and applying the relevant ethical principles to your case study and how these may guide your care, or how they may guide your care in the future if you come across a similar situation. You can write from the 1st/3rd person and discuss what was done/wasn’t done and whether the outcome was positive/negative for example. Essentially, this essay is about what you learnt on reflection by applying the ethical principles.

·         Refer to the marking rubric on blackboard;

·         Aim for approx.1000 to 1200 (maximum) words that includes an introduction, body and conclusion. Remember quality, not quantity for this academically written paper. You need to be able to be succinct and clear when addressing the three points above;

·         The goal is to be able to reflect and gain insight to ethical and moral dilemmas that frequently occur in clinical settings. The reflective essay applies an ethical framework through applying the principles for decision making and reflection, to assist in developing your critical thinking and problem solving skills.

·         The University plagiarism principles apply to this assessment. See University Disciplinary action as per the University policy here: https://www.notredame.edu.au/about/schools/notre-dame-study-centre/academic-integrity-at-notre-dame-2020

This activity carries 30% weighting towards the overall course mark. The results of the assessment will be posted on Blackboard within two to three weeks from the date of submission. All work will be marked and graded using the Assessment Rubric attached below.