Capella FPX 4000 Assessment 3

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX4000 Developing a Nursing Perspective

Prof. Name

Date

Applying Ethical Principles in Chronic Disease Management

Elizabeth Suarez Capella University NURS-FPX4000 – Developing a Nursing Perspective Professor: Rebecca Taulbee May 2025

Wearable Technology in Chronic Illness Care

Chronic illnesses like diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases demand ongoing management and monitoring.

• Wearable devices allow real-time symptom tracking, supporting patient self-management (Lewczak & Mitchell, 2024).
• Nurses play a crucial role by interpreting wearable data, providing patient education, and ensuring seamless care coordination.
• Ethical concerns include access disparities, data accuracy, and the need to maintain patient autonomy.

Why Focus on Wearables in Chronic Disease?

• Enables early detection and proactive intervention.
• Empowers patients to engage in their care.
• Enhances ethical, evidence-based decision-making (Fan & Zhao, 2021).
• Improves coordination across interdisciplinary teams and outcomes.

Ethical Principle: Autonomy

• Patients have the right to make informed decisions about their care.
• Pediatric cases present complexities; children’s preferences may be overlooked in favor of parental or system decisions.
• Overuse of digital twin systems (DTS) can suppress patient voice and reduce autonomy (Drummond et al., 2022).
• Ethical nursing practice supports informed, inclusive decision-making while integrating new technologies.

Ethical Principle: Beneficence

• Healthcare professionals must act in the best interest of the patient.
• Wearables like DTS enhance outcomes and support proactive care.
• Nurses must evaluate the real-world benefits and avoid overdependence on technology.
• Interventions must always align with personal, developmentally appropriate care (Drummond et al., 2022).

Ethical Principles: Nonmaleficence and Justice

Nonmaleficence

• Care should never cause harm.
• Blind reliance on AI and DTS can result in poor decisions, particularly in pediatric care.
• Ignoring patient input in favor of algorithmic data may harm psychological well-being.
• Nurses must ensure that care is guided by compassion, not just data (Drummond et al., 2022).

Justice

• Fair access to care is a fundamental right.
• Many patients face barriers due to the cost of devices, digital illiteracy, and lack of internet access (Ilse, 2024).
• These inequalities can worsen chronic conditions in vulnerable populations.
• Nurses advocate for access to technology across all cultural and socioeconomic groups.

Capella FPX 4000 Assessment 3

Bias in Wearable Health Technology

• Bias in algorithms and data interpretation can influence clinical outcomes (Drummond et al., 2022).
• Marginalized communities are often underrepresented in device training datasets.
• Nurses must remain aware of bias and promote fairness in care.

• Ethical breakdown by principle:

  • Autonomy: Stereotyping patients limits their capacity for informed choices.
  • Beneficence: Misinterpreted data can reduce benefits for minority groups.
  • Nonmaleficence: Bias may lead to clinical harm.
  • Justice: Unequal access creates significant health disparities (Fan & Zhao, 2021; Drummond et al., 2022).

The Four Spheres of Care and Wearables

• Clinical Care: Focuses on real-time, hands-on patient interactions.
• Wearables extend this care beyond clinics through continuous health tracking.
• Nurses use data from devices to adjust treatments and improve outcomes.
• This technology bridges gaps in follow-up care and enhances chronic disease management (Ilse, 2024).

Ethical Considerations in Wearable Integration

• Incorporating wearables ethically requires balancing innovation with responsibility.

• Core ethical issues include:

  • Informed consent
  • Patient privacy and data security
  • Equitable access to technology
  • Respect for patient preferences and autonomy
• Nurses must champion inclusive practices and advocate for equitable digital health access (Ilse, 2024).

Conclusion

Ethical integration of wearable technology in chronic disease management is essential to:

• Ensure equal access to innovative healthcare tools.
• Maintain patient autonomy and uphold trust.
• Empower nurses to deliver compassionate, effective, and personalized care.

By embracing technology responsibly, nurses play a key role in bridging the gap between ethics and innovation.

References

Drummond, D., & Coulet, A. (2022). Technical, ethical, legal, and societal challenges with digital twin systems for personalized health care: A scoping review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(10), e39698. https://doi.org/10.2196/39698

Fan, K., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Mobile health technology: A novel tool in chronic disease management. Intelligent Medicine, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imed.2021.06.003

Capella FPX 4000 Assessment 3

Ilse, R. (2024). Ethical challenges in healthcare innovation: A leadership perspective. Healthcare Management Forum, 37(1), 24–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704231214040

Lewczak, Z., & Mitchell, M. (2024). Wearable technology and chronic illness: Balancing justice and care ethics. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.73686