Reducing Teen Pregnancy in the Community

Reducing Teen Pregnancy in the Community
Teen pregnancy has been on the increase; this reality also increases maternal mortality rates. Therefore, there is the need to address the issue from a community perspective. In hopes of reducing teen pregnancy rates in the US, many interventions including school health programs have been used. The focus of the education is to teach teenagers how to handle relationships, make sound decisions, and resist peer pressure that may drive them into making wrong decisions. Teen pregnancy has many effects both on the person and on the community as a whole. School dropout rates have been on the increase; the issue also thwarts school achievement and affects the health of children born to teen mothers.
In reducing pregnancy among teenagers, there must be understanding and active participation from the parties’ involved (Francis et al., 2016). Some ethical principles must be considered to save the situation without hurting indulging unfairly. The principles include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. Autonomy means acting separately from others or independence. The teenagers should be given the right to be independent such that they make their informed decisions. Advice should be presented, but the decision should be by the individual in a predicament (Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2013).
Beneficence is an ethical principle, which means that doing good to others (Bennett, 2014) meaning that all the initiatives should be for the good of teenagers.

Actions should be aimed at removing harm or improving teens’ situations. Non-maleficence means not causing any harm. The initiatives should not risk the health of adolescents that is, it should not cause any harm to them. Justice is an important ethical principle, and it means being fair in dealing with the teenagers. None should be favored in any way, and the provision of the services should be consistent to all who seek them. Ethical principles must be considered to have a successful initiative that is embraced by many people and therefore faces less resistance (Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2013).
Considering ethics, which is a branch of philosophy that deals with right and wrong, the community health team must adhere to the ethical principles. A deontological approach which mainly deals with the action itself as being wrong or right is what all address in this paper. A community health nurse and another health team can limit teen pregnancy by showing them how the actions they take can be wrong or right by indicating their effects on health (Francis et al., 2016).
A community health nurse can encourage teenagers to abstain since engaging in premarital sex is wrong. The nurse can teach the adolescents that the only sure way of preventing pregnancy is by abstinence. Sex before marriage is wrong and even most Holy books such as the Bible and Quran are against it. The community health team in a bid to reduce teen pregnancy should, therefore, outline this area clearly stating the importance of abstinence. Deontologists can also do this by describing the dangers that come with engagement in premarital sex that it not only leads to unplanned pregnancy but also the transmission of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
Confidentiality must be maintained in the dealings. Adolescents might find it hard opening up about their relationships but when they do nurse should try to treat the information with utmost confidentiality. Teenagers are very sensitive and may feel offended and discouraged in seeking help if they learn that their information was shared. Confidentiality is another ethical consideration to check. The nurse should respect the participants’ abilities in playing the roles they should in determining what they need. There should be consistency in service provision and no favoritism. The health team should always try to do no harm and direct the services to the merit of the teenagers.
References
Francis, K. k., Phil liber, S., Walsh-Buhi, E. R., Philliber, A., Seshadri, R., & Daley, E. (2016). Scalability of an Evidence-Based Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program: New Evidence from 5 Cluster-Randomized Evaluations of the Teen Outreach Program. American Journal of Public Health, 106S32-S38.
Bennett, R. (2014). When intuition is not enough. Why the Principle of Procreative Beneficence must work much harder to justify its eugenic vision. Bioethics, 28(9), 447-455. doi:10.1111/bioe.12044
Gonzalez-Perez, M. A., & Leonard, L. (2013). Principles and Strategies to Balance Ethical, Social and Environmental Concerns with Corporate Requirements. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.