The Ethical Decision Making For Critically Ill Children

Nurses rely on personal knowledge and their professional skills to provide ethical care (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). In everyday practice, nurses must balance the needs of their patients against those of the organization, society and themselves. They strive to deliver the highest level of care for patients, but adjusting for limited organizational and personal resources often requires difficult decisions. This paper explores the following scenario suggested by Maville and Huerta: “You are a nurse providing home care to a mother, and you suspect child abuse after observing the mother’s reaction to her child” (as cited by Arizona State University, 2014). When faced with a moral dilemma, a competent nurse incorporates ethical, bioethical and legal considerations. In the proposed story, incorporating the nursing ethics of advocacy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and collaboration will guide the nurse towards an appropriate and legal course of action.

The following scenario explores the legal and ethical decisions involved with a pediatric patient. A six year old boy suffering from Sickle cell anemia is brought to the hospital with a crisis. During a sickle cell anemia crisis, red blood cells are damaged and they are unable to deliver oxygen to the body. The standard treatment is oxygen, hydration, blood replacements and exchange transfusion (Anita, 2006). The pediatric patient was admitted in critical condition and a blood transfusion is necessary. Parents stated they want to save their child and will accept any type of treatment except for blood products.

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

Today many nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals encounter ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. An ethical dilemma can be defined as when there is more than one reasonable solution to a specific scenario. No one solution is more right than the other. In fact, they may both feel wrong, but a decision must be made (Butts & Rich, 2016). In the healthcare setting, nurses should be prepared to think critically and make ethical decisions. There are many factors that contribute to the process of ethical decision making such as ethical perspectives, principles, theories, and guidelines. Ethical decision making is to be rational and systematic. The selected case to be discussed is the case of Jahi McMath,

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

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.

Healthcare professionals have an ethical obligation to respect patient’s wishes. Consequently, many legal and ethical dilemmas arise in healthcare in response to clinical decisions related to the needs, beliefs, and preferences of patients and families. Other dilemmas result over concerns about the integrity, competence, or actions of other healthcare professionals. Preserving human dignity, relieving suffering, equality, integrity, and accountability are essential nursing values (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, 2015). Nurse leaders have an

The ethical issues involved in this topic include age limits, medical ethics, informed consent, and autonomy. It is unethical and immoral to allow adolescents to make their own medical decisions, because the judgment and capacity to make coherent decisions is unstable. However, adolescents should be involved and have a voice in the process of decision making, nonetheless I believe that the concluding medical decision should be made by the guardian and the doctor. An adolescent is between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. Society permits the legal determination of decision making for health care at the age of eighteen years. It is very important to consider developmental issues which will influence both reasoning and information processing, the brain not being fully developed causes a sense of a lost identity, and low self esteem challenges adolescents to develop a logical decision. An adolescent brain is not yet fully developed, the lack of grey matter and an

As advances are made in neonatology, healthcare providers and families are faced with difficult decisions about premature neonatal resuscitation. Premature infants are now surviving at lower gestational ages than they have ever before causing an ethical dilemma for physicians, nurse, and parents. Physicians and nurses are upheld by the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, while parents may be influenced by spiritual, cultural, moral, and social factors. When making decisions on resuscitation in neonates on the limits of viability, it is important to consider the ethics of the infant’s mortality, mobility including the parental wishes.

The parent in this case had a duty to protect her child and make the best informed choices and decisions regarding to health related issues for her. At the same time, the mother has a duty as a member to the Mohawk Nation to follow traditional ways of life regarding health and treatment. The hospital on the hand resembles the paternalistic western thinking and their duty was to the patient and not the family per se. The duty of the hospital to the patient is to provide them with the best care possible while also not limiting their autonomy. In a way there is some kind of aggression to what the hospitals feel is vital to the survival for this child, while respecting the rights of the parents to refuse chemotherapy.

Charlotte’s health was rapidly declining. Mitchell wrote, “The nurses and doctors thought she should be allowed to die peacefully” (480). They recommended that a do not resuscitate order be put in Charlotte’s chart. The new parents did not agree. They believed righteously that the treatment in the United States would protect her and she would live. Charlotte’s parents were naïve and made Charlotte suffer with agonizing pain because of their decision. The doctors and nurses were right to want to insert a do not resuscitate order in Charlotte’s chart. In contrast, Charlotte bounced between the hospital, home, the ER and pediatric nursing

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.

The Nuffied Council on Bioethics (2006) report Critical Care Decisions in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine states there are three main ethical issues surrounding neonatal intensive care by both professionals and the public which includes the borderline of viability, fetal medicine and the critical care decision-making for babies receiving intensive care (Teasdale, D. 2007).

Each of the seven primary values encompassed within the code of ethics were involved in this case include, providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care, promoting health and well-being, promoting and respecting informed decision-making, preserving dignity, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, promoting justice and being accountable (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). I am going to thoroughly examine providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care, as well as preserving dignity. The code of ethics states under providing safe compassionate, competent and ethical care that nurses’ ethical responsibilities are to follow their practice standards, participate in compassionate care exhibited through actions, behaviours and body language, build trustworthy relationships, be able to fully place oneself in the individuals shoes to fully comprehend their situations, admit to mistakes, and prevent and minimize all forms of harm and violence (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). This ethical quandary displays how this ethical value was not implemented, the health care aids did not place themselves in their shoes and try to understand their thoughts and feelings or how abandoned and meaningless they felt when they were not even acknowledged. No one

Full and absolute custody of the child upon birth, notwithstanding any congenital, physical or mental abnormality of the child, and all the decisions concerning the child’s health, in utero and after delivery, shall be made by intended parents. Therefore, it is vital for the medical and psychological evaluations and screening. They must also take into consideration the assumption of medical risks and releases. Furthermore, that all medical procedures have been thoroughly explained to them by the physician, and advised of the risks, including death, which may result from the conduct