Running head: Nursing Ethics in Palliative Care 1 Nursing Ethics in Palliative Care Debi Ramsey Western Carolina University (Class) October 29, 2017 The nursing profession offers many rewards. Among those is being part of a team who has the opportunity to influence the health, welfare and well being of people each and every day. Nursing student go to nursing school with the intention of learning how to heal and help people live not to learn to help people die. The healthcare environment is changing. Part of that change is because the United States’ (US) population is aging at increasing rates. By 2030, one in five Americans …show more content…
Nurses must now be educated to understand holistic person-centered care, identification and respect for patient choices from prenatal to end of life. Some ways to accomplish this include: incorporate primary palliative nursing education in pre-licensure, graduate, doctoral, and continuing education; increase palliative care content on the pre-licensure NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN exams; develop and implement evidence-based palliative care services for all organizations; and made primary palliative nursing be part of organizational and unit-based credentialing and recognition programs. The appreciation of cultural diversity and preferences and the need for equity and inclusion in palliative care practice causes an ethical problems when all nurses are not educated to assure that all patients of all ages can receive palliative whenever and where ever it is needed. The second dilemma is caused by the wording in all settings. Palliative care can be given in homes. More often it is given in palliative care clinics, extended care facilities, nursing homes with a palliative care team or hospitals. The most difficult setting to assure that palliative care is delivered may be in hospitals without a palliative care unit. This is an example by Paulus 2008. Mrs. Smith, a 71 year old female, is admitted with exacerbation of her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia. Her symptoms are cough, fever,
In today’s healthcare system, nursing is a challenging field as a result of rapid technological advances and changes in healthcare policies. As a dedicated nursing professional, with a great passion for learning, I strive to stay on top of these changes. I am determined to increase my knowledge to be an instrumental part of providing quality healthcare. The demands of nursing are high; however the rewards are even higher. Nursing requires both a supreme understanding of the science of health, and a caring bedside manner befitting only those who seek a position of such a personal involvement in the well-being of a patient. Academically, I will put forth all of
There is a shortage of all health care professions throughout the United States. One shortage in particular that society should be very concerned about is the shortage of Registered Nurses. Registered Nurses make up the single largest healthcare profession in the United States. A registered nurse is a vital healthcare professional that has earned a two or four year degree and has the upper-most responsibility in providing direct patient care and staff management in a hospital or other treatment facilities (Registered Nurse (RN) Degree and Career Overview., 2009). This shortage issue is imperative because RN's affect everyone sometime in their lifetime. Nurses serve groups, families and individuals to foster
There will be a few challenges ahead for our healthcare system and the nursing profession: 1. The Aging Population- (baby boomers will be hitting retirement age). 2. Poverty-“the increasing numbers of disenfranchised people and pressure to limit health care expenditures will collide to create an intense values conflict for nurses of the future”. (Chitty & Black p.382) 3. Unhealthy Lifestyles- (obesity, tobacco use, lack of exercise, stress, HIV/AIDS and drug abuse). 4. Faculty and Student shortages- making nursing shortage worse. Nurses as
Registered nurses are an integral part of the healthcare system, and make up the largest number of healthcare professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) “The employment rate for registered nurses is expected to grow by 16% between 2014 and 2024”. This is more than double the average rate of growth for a profession. The rapid growth rate can be attributed in part to better management of chronic diseases and the baby boomer generation. The growth in the nursing profession is paramount, however the demographics of the nursing population does not mirror the demographics of the population served.
Before I started this class I thought palliative care was only used as end of life care, or for when a curative treatment was unavailable or had failed. As we learned about the different models of care, and how they have changed over the years, it became evident that the use of palliative care has changed drastically over the past several decades. In the 1800s to 1900s, palliative care was only used once the patient had reached the dying stage, and only included the patient in this care, not their families1. Before taking this course, this is what I thought of palliative care as well. Since the late 1900s though, palliative care has been used in a more proactive approach. From the moment an individual receives a life threatening illness, palliative care begins. This includes caring for the family of the patient as well. This care increases as the patient’s illness progresses, and even continues for the family after the death of the patient. Learning this has really made an impact on how I would like to work as a
The national shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) has helped generate formidable interest in the nursing profession among people entering the workforce and those pursuing a career change. According to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service in 2002, the national population is continuing to grow and age and medical services continue to advance, so the need for nurses will continue to increase. They report from 2000 to 2020 the predicted shortage of nurses is expected to grow to 29 percent, compared to a 6 percent shortage in 2000. With the projected supply, demand, and shortage of registered nurses and nursing salaries ever-increasing, the nursing profession can offer countless opportunities. But first one must
Palliative care is a relatively new concept, stemming from the hospice movement of the 1960s. This type of care focuses on the quality of life of its patients at any time in their treatment process. Palliative care is a concept that is often used synonymously with hospice care. Although it can be congregated with hospice care, they are not the same thing. Thus, it can easily be misunderstood. Sherner (2015) explains that both clinicians and people alternate palliative care and hospice. Unfortunately, she says, these people believe that palliative care implies the patient is refusing curative care. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the concept, clarify the meaning, and differentiate the concept of palliative care.
Despite significant advances in the multidisciplinary approach of palliative care and the growing body of evidence-based practice, a multitude of variables continue to interfere with excellence in end-of-life care for everyone (Anonymous, 2007). Because of this the primary nurse must be diligent in administering the proper medications to allow the patient to have minimal pain or suffering and provide emotional support and reassurance to family members, and possibly fellow staff members
Historically, the nursing field is one that has consistent positive job outlooks, as there is typically a continued shortage. Healthcare is the backbone of most communities, not just for its services, but also for the jobs it provides and the economy stimulation. Jill Bernstein, author for “Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization” states, “The health care industry is a critical component of the national, and most regional and local economies of the United States” (4). The nursing field has suffered challenges due to the economic, social, and the political downturn of the U.S. Nevertheless, there is still some noticeable growth taking place and opportunities available. This shows encouraging signs for new nursing graduates.
An ethical dilemma is a difficult situation that usually involves a conflict between moral obligations, in which to obey one would result in disobeying another (Murphy, 1997). Sedation is an ethical dilemma in palliative care because on one side it helps to relieve suffering for patients who are terminally ill and almost at the end of their lives. However, at the same time, sedation is making the patient deprived of certain bioethical principles such as autonomy, the main issue with palliative sedation is that it prohibits the patient from changing his or her decision, once sedation is commenced and informed consent also becomes complex (Cooney, 2005). The writer is in the favour of palliative sedation because it is an effective symptom controlled strategy for the patients who are nearly at the end of their lives. Moreover, it is believed that by providing sedation to a patient induce unconsciousness, which makes the patient completely unaware of the external world and tend to reduce the suffering by considering ethical and moral principles. However, some people think palliative sedation as euthanasia, which cause death because of making the patient deprive of nutrition and hydration while giving sedation. Ethical principles are going to be discussed in this essay such as autonomy, beneficence, non- maleficence and justice. Moreover, this essay also going to put light on current research
However, often the nurse will find herself dealing with difficult family dynamics with family members having differing expectations of the type of care that the patient should be receiving, staff conflict over treatment methods or strategies and high workloads. These issues can only compound the stresses on the Palliative Care Nurse and to cope
Palliative care is a profession dedicated to relieving the pain of those who are gravely ill. At first glance, it seems like it would be a widely respected profession. After all, who likes pain? However, as the many decades of political debate have shown us, anything that has to do with healthcare is complicated. As one study from the Canadian medical association journal shows us, many people still have a very widely negative of palliative care. As the study highlights, many patients panicked when they said they were being seen by a palliative care team. They thought that they were being relegated to death. However, even though a negative view of palliative care persists in today's culture, one magazine insists that this view may be changing.
People are different in this world they are different in excepting and dealing with the bad news. When it comes to death it is very unbleavaibel thought ,when a person find out that he have only a few days to live in this life ,death is very common an all ages and all the times .death is bad news and it is very difficult to be known especially for the nurse .it is very stressful for her to take care of people who are facing death ,so it is important for a palliative nurse to know how she can handle the person who is facing death and how she let them live their rest of their life in peace without any pain and fears of what is coming .how the nurse can make the family except the death and coping and what they should do in this stage .what
I have been a registered nurse at UCLA for 18 months. One particular issue that has captured my attention is the utilization of palliative care in health care. Because nurses are generally at the bedside all the time, they have an important role to play in voicing the importance of its utilization and implementation in the patient’s care.
Palliative care can be of great significance to nursing and healthcare as patients and family members who have access to this service report higher satisfaction (Kaiser Health News, 2010). The researchers used a simple and low costing method of contacting patient families by telephone interview. A computerized program was used to analyze data (Gelfman et al., 2008).