ICN Code of Ethics and End of Life Care: A Case Study Analysis

NURS3004
Transition to professional
practice

Table of Contents
Case Study A....................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Question 1........................................................................................................................................3
Question 2........................................................................................................................................4
Question 3........................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

Case Study A
INTRODUCTION
The ICN code of ethics is a statement regarding the responsibilities and liabilities of
nursing professionals, ethical values, behavioural and professional judgements and relationship
with the patients (Fowler (2019)). The ICN code of ethics provide framework for Nurses and
patients, Nurses and practices, Nurses and the profession and last the nurses and the global
health. This report will focus on deteriorating health condition of Mr. Lamb. The Report will first
analyse the already happened situation and then Knowledge gained through Mr. Lamb condition
management according to the ICN code of ethics. Furthermore, this report will guide in handling
the exact situation from the future prospectives and the knowledge and skills which must be
present in nursing staff who is providing the patient care.
Question 1
From the case study I have identified that Mr. Lam is under End of life care and the
assigned nurses are doing their work accurately. The nurses are doing their role considering the
ethical Values, responsibilities and the professional accountabilities. After going through the
medical history of Mr. Lam, the nurses have recognised that he is suffering from Metastatic Bone
cancer and have frequently visited the oncology department in past six month for his
chemotherapy. Mr. Lam was going to die soon the nursing staff decided to give him end of life
care. Nursing staff could provide this care at his home but as his condition was deteriorating by
the each passing days, the severe pain in spine is making him restless and he needs to be
comfortable as much as possible. The infusion pump containing the morphine is prescribed in
order to make him comfortable. Other alternatives can also be possible like IV therapy but the
best suited method in this condition was Infusion pump as infusion rate can be monitored and can
be changed accordingly. The taken decision was very well communicated among all the staff
member and well coordinated planned because they are continuously monitoring the infused
morphine rate and analysed that excess dose can leads to respiratory depression. The involved
stakeholder in treatment are Patient, Nurses, Nurses Leaders and the Nurse Managers. I have
identified some legal and ethical issue in the treatment like the nursing staff can go for some
advance treatment like surgery or targeted drug therapy instead of infusing opioids (McGinn &
Vana (2022)). The nursing staff have compromised the patient autonomy and manage the