Ethical and Legal Ethical problem solving and decision making is an arduous process for any nurse or health care worker. As Marquis and Huston, (2015) point out, that ethical decision making takes thinking skills and risk taking abilities to address and solve ethical problems. An ethical dilemma occurred during my charge in the NICU many years ago. A twenty-two week baby was born breathing and crying, it was decided by the team of neonatologists and the parents that no heroic efforts would be made to keep this baby alive. At the time the neonatal resuscitation guidelines for saving a baby were twenty-four weeks. Meanwhile, the baby came to the unit and placed in an isolette while the parents visited and held the baby. After numerous hour of life one of the doctors decided to place the baby on a nasal cannula and place lines in the baby for comfort care, however, no …show more content…
A line for pain management is acceptable, of course. If I had of been the parents, after two days of the baby living, I would have asked for extreme measure knowing what I know. The baby was African American; they have the best pre-term survival rates of all premature babies. After looking at the MORAL Decision-Making model, I can see that numerous steps were used during the above situation. Collecting information and deciding who should be involved to confront the situation was done when the ethical committee and other staff got together for a meeting about the baby. An alternative palliative care option was provided for the baby while a plan of care was implemented for the remainder of the baby’s life. Whenever our unit has a baby that is close to death a committee of healthcare workers including the ethics team congregate to discuss the life and death of the
In clinical setting, nurses face ethical dilemmas everyday. There is no perfect answer to ethical dilemmas in clinical area. It is important to identify ethics related situation, work as a team to address these problems and provide support for patient and families. Dealing with dilemmas is not just a nursing issue. But the role and function of nurses could affect whole team member and their patients too. In the given scenario, two different views of parents for the sick child create dilemmas. Mother (biological parent) insists that no medical treatment for religious reasons but in the other hand father (biological parents) insist for medical treatment and consultation. This paper discusses the ethical dilemma of given scenario and the solution by using Uustal’s ethical decision making.
Today nurses in all roles participate in ethical decision making arising from mortality, relationships, and conduct issues surrounding patient care and families. This is particularly the situation with ethical issues involving pediatrics and those unable to take their own decisions. While the patients’ interests should come first, there are many other factors that come into play when providing pediatric patient care: parents’ knowledge, cultural and religious practices, and the pediatric patient’s knowledge of their disease. Therefore, it is essential for nurses to follow the American Nurses Association (ANA) code of ethics to carry out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession. In this paper I will discuss the ethical issues that deal with a fourteen year old boy with Cystic Fibrosis (C.F.). He has been faced with the proposition from his pulmonologist that he will not survive another acute respiratory distress attack and will have to intubated if his status deteriorated. However, he and his parents are not agreeing on whether or not he should be intubated if his status deteriorated with his next attack. This poses a huge ethical dilemma because as a nurse we are the patient’s advocate and need to do everything we can to make our patient comfortable as well as having the parents understand and accept the patient wants and desires.
The case of Baby Boy Doe is an ethical dilemma because it’s an occurrence where “decision makers are drawn in two directions by competing course of acting that are based of differing moral frameworks, varying or inconsistent elements of the organizations philosophy, conflicting duties or moral principles, or an ill-defined sense of right and wrong.” (Darr, K. 2011) There were many differing viewpoints as well as moral and ethical choices on this case, the parents, nurses, physicians and hospital as an organization. In regards to the respect for person’s principle, the hospital and physicians allowed the parents to be completely autonomous. The parents were given the
Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, each situation being unique and requiring the nurse to set aside their own values and beliefs in order to properly care for their patients. Situations requiring nurses to make an ethical decision are diverse and dynamic; the values set out by the College of Nurses of Ontario code of ethics remains the same. Therefore, all decision based on these vales regardless of the setting and circumstances ensure consistent solutions. The scenario involves a woman who was admitted to the NICU due to complications during her sixth month of pregnancy. The patient indicated that no extraordinary measures should be made to save her baby; she became further detached when the baby developed a bleed
The ethical dilemma to be faced in this situation is the one between the ethical principles of beneficence and veracity. Beneficen ce is the ethical nursing principle that defines the concept
The people involved in this dilemma were the MD, the baby, her father, mother, and nurse.
Ethics, the rules and principles that guide right behaviors or conduct, are foundational to the field of bioethics, which focuses on ethical issues in healthcare (Mclennon, Uhrich, Lasiter, Chamnes, & Helft, 2013). Nurses are faced with ethical decision making principles daily when caring for their patients, some days more than others. According to Yoder-Wise (2011), ethics may be distinguished from the law because ethics is internal to an individual, looks to the ultimate “good” of an individual rather than society as a whole, and concerns the “why” of one’s actions (p. 91). In this particular situation, the nurse has to decide if she will respect the wishes of the patient’s family members or be upfront and honest with her patient and
Ethical issues in nursing will always be an ongoing learning process. Nurses are taught in nursing school what should be done and how. Scenarios are given on tests with one right answer. However, there are situations that nurses may encounter that may have multiple answers and it is hard to choose one. “Ethical directives are not always clearly evident and people sometimes disagree about what is right and wrong” (Butts & Rich, 2016). When an ethical decision is made by a nurse, there must be a logical justification and not just emotions.
Since the nurses are taught to resuscitate the patient and save lives, they forget the ethical guidelines of asking the family about the patient wishes and whether or not to resuscitate. It is important for the nurses to realize that ethical issues have difficult solutions. Inadequate experience and education can put a nurse at a high risk for experiencing ethical issues, depression and burnout ((Jiménez-Herrera & Axelsson,
Ethical decisions and issues in neonatal nursing deem conflicting amongst families and the healthcare team since it is unknown if an infant born severely premature, between 22-24 weeks in gestation at 450g, if survival is imminent. Many advancements in treatment, technology, and healthcare perceive feasible, but when a premature infant’s life is compromised, due to severe prematurity, finding the best possible solutions and treatment options may put the healthcare team, caring for the infant, in a conflicting situation. Survival rates amongst premature newborns and severely ill infants have skyrocketed due to the increased advancement and development in nursing, medicine, and treatment plans. Finding the best possible solutions
`Ethics' is defined as ."..the basis on which people...decide that certain actions are right or wrong and whether one ought to do something or has a right to something"(Rumbold, 1986). In relating `ethics' to nursing care, "Nursing decisions affect people... nurses have the power to good or harm to their patients" (Bandman et al, 2002). In this essay, the author will also identify the most important ethical principles and concepts of Evan's case, will outline the different stages of one's approach to ethical decision-making by utilising the "DECIDE Model for Ethical Decision-Making" founded by Thompson et al (2000) and will make a decision on the best course of action to take as a nurse in this
Healthcare professionals will be faced with ethical dilemmas throughout their career, particularly in the hospital environment. Having an education regarding professional healthcare ethics will provide some direction in how to best address these dilemmas at a time when either the patient or their family is in need of making decisions for themselves or their family member. It can be difficult for healthcare professionals to weigh professional protocol against their own personal beliefs and ethical understandings when determining critical care for their patient.
An ethical dilemma is defined as a mental state when the nurse has to make a choice between the options and choices that he or she has at her disposal. The choice is a crucial task as the opting of the step will subsequently determine the health status of the concerned patient, hence it requires a great deal of wisdom along with proper medical and health training before any such step is opted as it is a matter of life and death. Strong emphasis should therefore be on the acquisition of proper knowledge and skills so that nurses do posses the autonomy to interact with patients regarding ethical issues involved in health care affairs and address them efficiently. It is normally argued that nurses are not provided sufficient
Throughout the last decade healthcare has had several high profile cases that involved ethics. Currently, a high profile case from England is in the news concerning an infant on life support that has pitted emotion versus judicial review. Of course, these cases test nurses resolve to do good. It is cases like this that requires a nurse to define their own ethics and to develop a plan on how they will decide their ethical decision-making. A nurse must consider his or her own morals, values, and beliefs. The University of Villanova, 2017 website has a nine-provision code of ethics that identifies three participants in providing ethical treatment: the patient, the nurse, and the environment. These three together should have a synergy promoting best outcomes for all three participants. With such sensitive, complex cases that do not have one correct answer in all cases, how does one go about determining the most ethical outcome? Perhaps through a review of several decision-making processes one can find a guide.
Health care professionals practice in an environment that is complex. There are many regulations, laws and standards of practice that healthcare workers must abide by. An ethical issue can occur when a doctor performs an abortion that is legal but may not be considered ethical by other health care professionals or members of the public at large. Other ethical dilemmas arise at the end of life, when a decision must be made to turn off life-support machines and allow death to occur (Greenwood, 2015). There are more ethical issues that a health care professional might face on an