Final answer:
The principle of beneficence in nursing ethics highlights taking beneficial actions for the patient's welfare and preventing harm, while care ethics emphasizes the values of empathy and responsibility, focusing on relationships and individual situations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ethical principle of beneficence requires that nurses and other healthcare providers take actions that benefit the patient and actively prevent harm. This concept is central to the decision-making process in pediatric nursing, where the well-being and best interests of the child are paramount. It aligns with the broader framework of care ethics, which emphasizes understanding and addressing the concerns of all involved parties to reach an informed and compassionate resolution.
Care ethics foregrounds the importance of moral values like compassion, empathy, and responsibility over strict adherence to impersonal rules or principles. When applied to clinical settings or research, care ethics encourages a focus on the relationships and complexities involved in real-life situations. For example, the principle of nonmaleficence underlines that treatments should not cause unnecessary harm, while the principle of autonomy upholds the right of patients to make informed decisions about their own health care.
Notably, feminist care ethics challenges the traditional ethics of justice by prioritizing feelings and experiences associated with caregiving roles, often traditionally undertaken by women, and recognizes the moral depth in these caring relationships.