Nursing Assignment Ethical and Legal Challenges
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Added on 2020-04-21
Nursing Assignment Ethical and Legal Challenges
Added on 2020-04-21
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Running head: NURSINGEthical and legal challenges in a case studyName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note
1NURSINGAn experienced nurse is often responsible for assisting patients and their family membersduring times of suffering and pain. Assisting patients who are vulnerable to an imminent deathrisk is quite complicated and creates burden on the professional performance. In addition, nursesface various ethical dilemmas each day, regardless of their clinical expertise or practice(Iacobucci et al., 2013). This essay will explore the case study of a 67 year old lung cancerpatient who considers the treatment to be futile and wants to stop them. It will further illustratethe ethical and legal issues and will discuss the implications of the scenario in nursing practice.Legal and ethical issues- All patients have the right to determine his treatment and it isthe fundamental duty of healthcare organizations and practitioners to recognize this right. Nursesare entitled with the responsibility of respecting patients’ autonomy while taking measures thatwould improve patient health outcomes. The case study involves a tension between autonomyand beneficence. It is of utmost concern that the nurse Mary should respect the decisions takenby Jerry and should encourage him to participate in the decision making process. Mr. Jerry’sautonomy provides him the right to take decisions regarding his health condition regardless ofthe fact that such a decision can create adverse health effects and can cause imminent death.Although taking informed consent is generally considered as a legal concept, it is an ethicalimperative that works towards promoting the personal well-being of a patient. The patient’sautonomy has come into conflict with the beneficence of the nurses and the doctors. Ethicalconflicts will arise between non-maleficence and the power of autonomy (Holt & Convey, 2012).These can create adverse emotional impacts on the patient. Thus, Mary and the concernedhealthcare authorities should try to inform Mr. Jerry of the probable benefits of medications onlung cancer and should try to influence him to show compliance to the treatment. The nurseshould respect the decisions of the patient as long as Mr. Jerry is able to meet the criteria for
2NURSINGtaking an autonomous decision. However, efforts should be taken by the nurse to convince himto show compliance for the treatment (Faden et al., 2014).These ethical issues will adversely affect the relationship between him and Mary.Therefore, it is of prime importance that his Moreover, Mr. Jerry does not want to continue thetreatment as he feels it will be a burden on his daughter, who is already engaged in taking care ofher family. These conflicts can be avoided if the nurse discusses the financial issues with thehealthcare team and a medical social worker. The major legal issues associated with this case arethe presence of informed consent (Moulton et al., 2013). The Universal Declaration of HumanRights states that a patient has all rights to decide for the continuation of treatment services. It isthe role of the nurse to ensure that his rights are recognized by the other healthcare members andthe treatment services are carried out with the aim of advocating his best interests (Who.int,2017).Ethical decision making process- The value statement 1 of the SNB code of ethics statethat a patient must receive care from nurses and that care should determine the demands andvalues of the patients. This code of practice puts a restriction on client discrimination on thebasis of ethnicity, gender, age, religion, and socio-economic status. Further, the nurse Mary isbound by the standards of practice that mention that nurses should help their clients to expressindividual needs and should take them into these into consideration during formulating anoptimal care plan. Moreover, the value statement 2 states that the client’s autonomy should beprotected and the patient should be given all necessary support to obtain information fromappropriate sources (Healthypeople.gov, 2017). Therefore, in order to obtain an optimal healthoutcome, it is imperative for the nurse to develop a collaborative relationship between herpatient, his daughter and the staff of the healthcare organization (Engel & Prentice, 2013). On
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