DQ 2 : Discuss how ethical principles, virtues, and values affect your decision making.
Three separate influences and a conflict question. The interesting half is what happens when your personal values lose to the organisation's position — which is where this stops being abstract.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 18, 2026
Principles, virtues and values are three different things
Keep the three apart, because merging them is what makes these posts vague. Principles are action-guiding rules — autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice — and they tell you what to do. Virtues are dispositions of character: compassion, courage, integrity, trustworthiness, and they tell you what kind of person makes the decision well. Values are what you personally hold important, which may be shaped by faith, family, culture or profession and which vary between people who accept the same principles. In an allocation scenario all three are live at once. Justice tells you distribution must be defensible; courage is what lets you say no to a colleague with more seniority; and your own values determine whether you weight the sickest patient or the greatest total benefit when the principle underdetermines the answer, which it very often does. Two clinicians who accept exactly the same principles can still reach different allocations, and that gap is where values live.
Describe your process as steps rather than as a disposition. A workable one: establish the facts including what is genuinely scarce and for how long; identify who is affected and who is not in the room; name the principles in tension rather than the one you prefer; apply a criterion set in advance rather than invented for this case; consult, because a decision made alone in allocation is a decision nobody can check; decide, document the reasoning, and review it afterwards against what happened. Then the conflict question. A resolution that is organisationally correct can leave you personally uneasy — a triage protocol you helped write excludes a patient you know. The honest answer distinguishes three responses: comply and voice, which is arguing to change the rule for next time; comply and document dissent, which preserves a record; and conscientious objection, legitimate in narrow circumstances and carrying obligations of notice and handover. Say which you would use, and where the line is.
Likely learning objectives
- Distinguish principles, virtues and values as different influences.
- Recognise where a principle underdetermines a decision.
- Set out an ethical decision process as ordered steps.
- Distinguish compliance, documented dissent and conscientious objection.
Assignment instructions
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
DNP 815 Week 4 Discussions DQ 2 : Discuss how ethical principles, virtues, and values affect your decision making. Consider yourself in a role in which you are accountable for allocation of scarce health care resources for a given situation. Discuss how ethical principles, virtues, and values affect your decision making. Describe your process for ethical decision making. How might a resolution cause conflicts between personal values and beliefs and the perspective of the community or organization?
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01Definitions of principles, virtues and values, kept apart.
- 02An allocation scenario with a real scarcity.
- 03A decision process expressed as steps.
- 04A named conflict between personal and organisational positions.
- 05Three distinct responses to that conflict.
The three, your process, then the conflict
Three different influences
Define principles, virtues and values and what each contributes.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A case where two people share principles and differ on values.
Where the principle runs out
Show justice underdetermining a specific allocation.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A decision the principle alone cannot settle.
The process, as steps
Set out facts, stakeholders, tensions, criteria, consultation and review.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A step that could be skipped, and what would go wrong if it were.
When the resolution costs you
Name a conflict between your values and the organisation's position.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A conflict where the organisation is not simply wrong.
Comply, dissent, or object
Distinguish the three responses and their obligations.
What the assessor is likely looking for
The narrow conditions under which objection is legitimate.
Ethical frameworks that separate the three
Recommended databases
- Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- PubMed Central
- American Nurses Association
Search sequence
- 1.Read a framework that separates principle-based from virtue-based approaches.
- 2.Find literature on moral distress for the conflict section.
- 3.Look at how a real triage protocol states its criteria.
- 4.Decide your scenario before writing the process.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
A Framework for Ethical Decision Making
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University · 2021
A decision framework that sets out the competing ethical approaches explicitly.
Virtue Ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · 2022
Virtue ethics, for the character half kept distinct from principles.
The Limbic Brain, Moral Distress and Ethical Decision-Making in Nursing Practice
PMC / National Library of Medicine · 2025
Moral distress and ethical decision-making in nursing — what the conflict actually costs.
Implicit Bias
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Implicit bias, for the facts you did not think to establish.
Closing the health equity gap: evidence-based strategies for primary health care organizations
International Journal for Equity in Health (via PMC) · 2012
Health equity strategies, for the justice criterion in allocation.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Treating principles, virtues and values as synonyms.
- Describing a process that is really a disposition to be thoughtful.
- Resolving the conflict by asserting that patient care comes first.
- Omitting the documented-dissent option, which is the usual real answer.
Submission checklist
- Are the three influences defined separately?
- Is there a real scarcity in your scenario?
- Is your process a sequence someone else could follow?
- Have you named a genuine conflict?
- Are the three responses to conflict distinguished?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read Brinevia's academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Maren Caldwell
MSN, RN, CNE
Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation
Maren is a registered nurse with over 15 years of clinical and educational experience in medical-surgical nursing. She writes on NCLEX preparation, patient care fundamentals, pharmacology and evidence-based practice.
Reviewed by
Dr. Tessa Redmond
DNP, RN, CNE
Evidence-based practice and clinical education
Tessa is a doctorally-prepared nurse educator. She reviews Brinevia content for clinical accuracy and alignment with current evidence-based guidelines.