A Medical-Surgical Nurse Is Asked to Float to a Women's

A medical-surgical nurse is asked to float to a women's health unit to care for patients who are scheduled for therapeutic abortions. The nurse refuses to accept this assignment and expresses her personal beliefs as being incongruent with this medical practice. The nursing supervisor states that the unit is short-staffed and the nurse is familiar with caring for postoperative patients. In consideration of legal and ethical practices, can the nursing supervisor enforce this assignment?

A) The staff nurse has the responsibility of accepting any assignment that is made while working for a health care unit, so the nursing supervisor is within his or her rights to enforce this assignment.
B) Because the unit is short-staffed, the staff nurse should accept the assignment to provide care by benefit of her or his experience to patients who need care.
C) The staff nurse has expressed a legitimate concern based on his or her feelings; the nursing supervisor does not have the authority to enforce this assignment.
D) The nursing supervisor should emphasize that this assignment requires care of a surgical patient for which the staff nurse is adequately trained and should therefore enforce the assignment.