Which ethical principle emphasizes avoiding harm in decision-making?

The correct answer highlights the ethical principle of nonmaleficence, which specifically underscores the obligation to avoid causing harm to patients. This principle is fundamental in healthcare ethics, reflecting the responsibility of healthcare providers to ensure that their actions do not inadvertently harm individuals.

In practice, nonmaleficence involves careful consideration of the potential risks and benefits of any intervention or decision. Healthcare professionals are trained to weigh the likelihood of harm against the potential positive outcomes, ensuring their actions promote patient safety and well-being. This principle guides nurses and healthcare providers in making decisions that prioritize the physical and emotional safety of their patients.

While the other choices—justice, beneficence, and autonomy—are essential ethical principles in healthcare, they each address different aspects of patient care. Justice relates to fairness in resource distribution and treatment, beneficence pertains to actively promoting good and providing benefits to patients, and autonomy emphasizes respecting the individual rights of patients to make their own decisions. However, it is nonmaleficence that directly focuses on the imperative of minimizing harm.