Truth Dumping Issue Analysis Paper

Patients have the right to self-determination and individuals should have control over their own lives. With respect for human autonomy comes respect for patient rights. Apart of the nurses job is to promote, advocate and protect the rights, health, and safety of our patients. Patients have the right to determine their health needs, make informed decisions, and the right to information regarding their treatment and also the refusal of treatment. Nurses are obligated to know the rights of a patient and to make sure the patient understands their treatment plan. Supporting patient autonomy includes making decisions in the best interest of the patient, considering their values and recognizing differences between cultures. In the treatment

In addition to technical support provided to patients, nurses must address the psychosocial challenges and ethical conflicts associated with caring for critically ill patients and their families. More often Nurses are left with dilemmas when it comes to decision making and trying to up holds the ethics of autonomy, who to listen to, the client or the family? Ethically the patient has the right to choose what’s best for self, but is powerlessness when one is brought to hospital in a critical condition.

In his article “Whose Body Is It, Anyway?”—appearing in the New Yorker in October 1994—Dr. Atul Gawande highlights the complexities of the doctor-patient relationship vis-à-vis patient autonomy and decision-making. Dr. Gawande explains that a respect for patient autonomy (i.e., allowing patients to choose between courses of treatment, therefore directly influencing their health outcome) is the “new normal” for medical practitioners. However, Gawande also contends that there are times when patients are better served by a voluntary relinquishment of that autonomy.

While thinking that many are incapable of knowing the truth, it’s also partial of one’s principles when mixing the truth with lies as physician. When one lie begins many more might not be recognized. This has significant into how many lies can be told without the patient’s knowledge. How many more lie to come? It’s unknown of how many lies will be unrecognized, therefor doctors should not lie to their patients not even once. Morally doctors have the obligations of fairness to their patient. Making such a decision for a patient by lying to them can contradict a doctor’s responsibilities to perform ethically. So, while doctors might feel patients can’t handle the truth, it’s the patients right to decided that. Some will argue that when a vulnerable

For instance, in Lia’s case, asking these questions, a doctor may have learned that according to her family, soul loss was the cause for her ailment and that the family believed she should receive a little medicine and a little natural remedies. Whether she takes this to mean that the family did not understand western medicine and thus, it would be beneficial to Lia to push for the treatment she deemed right despite the family’s disapproval or he takes this to mean that she should limit the extent and changes in Lia’s medication in order to gain better cooperation from the family, makes a huge difference to Lia’s health. Therefore, it is essential to educate medical professionals to interpret their answers in a way that can improve the quality of the patient’s care. Furthermore, doctors may be resistant to asking these questions thinking that they waste precious time indulging delusions instead of treating the patient. However, as Neil and Peggy came to realize, all the medicine in the world is ineffective if the physician cannot communicate to the patient and get them to comply with the doctor’s request. Consequently, it is also important to inform the medical staff of the reasoning behind these questions and appeal to their innate desire to elicit the best outcome with the least harm, cost and time by educating them in the long term advantageous of being culturally-competent in their medical

Moreover, an emphasis is imposed on the rights of a single patient to commit an act or decision even though it is in contrast with the views of the others. In regards to the ethical dilemma, a nurse could not justify the morality of the two possible choices based on their results and consequences. The Deontological approach would encourage the health care staff as well as the patient to ask themselves the most righteous choice for their situation. With this in mind, a combination of ethical theories can also be employed to give light to the dilemma. In view of this, another ethical approach could be applied to solve the issue, and this is the Right-based approach. This theory also aim to promote the rights of every person, and that, they are indispensable just to make ends meet. However, not all ethical theories can be incorporated in every dilemma in a health care setting because their foundations would contradict one another. In order to provide an effective and efficient solution, nurses should be knowledgeable of the principles enveloping each of the ethical theories and should be wise to apply them in appropriate issues and

Sule stated that, “The Patient Bill of Right adopted by American Hospitals Association states that ‘a patient possesses the right to be informed of the medical consequences of his or her actions and decisions and refuse treatment to the extent permitted by the law’. However, this is true only if the patient is in position to understand the consequences of his treatment. Incompetent, senile patients neither have the correct judgment regarding which treatment is appropriate for them, nor are they in a state of understanding the implications of their treatment. In such case, their willingness to grant or deny consent cannot dictate the course of treatment.” Problem with the Act is being able to find that the patient component enough to make such a call. Another issue that Sule stated was on confidentiality and autonomy. According to Sule, “This is another ethical issue erupting from the conflict of patient's rights and professional ethics in nursing job and profession. The Patient Bill of Right makes it mandatory for the medical practitioners to reveal the form and extent of the ailment along with the course of treatment to be undertaken by the practitioners. However, this law of autonomy clashes with the nursing ethic that the professional should maintain high degree of confidentiality regarding the patient's health and treatment.” This can cause conflicting issues in the NP’s

Autonomy includes three primary conditions: (1) liberty (independence from controlling influences), (2) agency (capacity for intentional action), and (3) understanding (through informed consent) (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 100). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2009) to respect autonomous agents, one must acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices, and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs (p. 103). Respect for autonomy implies thaturges caregivers to respect theassist a patient in achieving? Heed? the autonomous choices of their patients. From there, patients can act intentionally and with full understanding when evaluating medical treatment modalities. Autonomy also includes a set of rules, one of which requires that providers honor patient decision-making rights by providing the truth, also known as veracity (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 103). In this case, several facets of the principle of respecting autonomy, specifically veracity, informed

Canada is a multicultural country. Healthcare providers, therefore, face certain challenges associated with this. The CMA Code of Ethics recommends that “physicians provide patients with whatever information that will, from the patient's perspective, have a bearing on medical care decision-making and communicate that information in a way that is comprehensible to the patient.” [1]. This statement has a very important message, which implies that the truth telling is not a mandatory burden that every patient must endure but rather a stage-like process delivered by a healthcare provider and guided by the patient.

Cultural competence can indicate the differences that exist among various ethnic and cultural groups in our country. As a healthcare provider, it is essential to understand the diverse cultures and their values, traditions and there history, so with all these in mind we can provide high quality patient care. Recognizing these needs can be accomplished with continuous education and training. We are in a culturally diverse society where the healthcare providers need to increase their awareness and sensitivity toward different patient populations and work to understand culturally influenced health behaviors. We are interacting with many people from varied cultural origins and ethnic backgrounds who bring with them values and beliefs that can differ from our expectations. Each patient is unique in their needs so understanding these cultural differences can aid communication and thereby improve patient care. Some cultures may be offended by direct eye contact or asking personal questions that are necessary for the health history may be recognized by them as an inexcusable invasion of privacy. Patient cross-cultural communication with other cultures in a way that minimizes misunderstandings and maximizes trust between the patients and healthcare providers. To avoid any complications and to decrease the likelihood of any liability and malpractice claims, healthcare organizations should follow and meet legislative regulatory and the accreditation

They have a duty and a legal responsibility to give the whole truth, receive informed consent, and be bound by primary duty. Each patient has the right to exercise control over his or her own body. The need to receive all the information available is extremely important to be fully informed of their current state and know all the options they have, this way they are able to be in agreement with their physician and give them the proper permission for what they are asking of them. The only way for this to happen is to have the patient be fully informed by having the physician give the whole truth. The physician is an expert and needs to be able to explain all the information to the patient since the patient is in an inferior position than the physician. The patient relies on them to give them the whole truth and provide alternative courses of action in a neutral fashion. The physician is also bound by primary duty to the patient which means that they cannot put anyone else’s good over the good of their

The Danish Council of Ethics views the prioritization of autonomy as extreme and says that it is impossible to diminish the extent at which people are influenced by others (Alzheimer Europe, 2009). Similarly, the Finnish National Advisory Board on Health Care Ethics has stated that medicine is too complex to determine one single aspect of it as the most important (Alzheimer Europe, 2009). They also state that there are other principles that are of equal importance, including self-determination, the principles of the common good, community and equity (Alzheimer Europe, 2009). The value in these principles is quite apparent, and should certainly be considered. It is undeniable that a support system is helpful, if not necessary, to a person recovering from or living with a serious illness. This is consistent with a statement made earlier in this paper, the idea that it can be of great value for family/other loved ones and caretakers to be well-informed and knowledgeable about their loved one’s medical conditions if the patient so choses. It can be helpful to many people to be able to draw on opinions and past experiences of others when making important decisions on treatment methods and other important issues. However, it is hard to justify that this means it is acceptable to interfere in someone’s treatment. The ramifications of this could be

Yeo (2010) point out that the possibility to retain some information from patients has been ordered for long in Australian law, as in other countries for the benefit of the patient. This has now been combined with the greater autonomy acknowledged to the patient in many jurisdictions. Although a clinical approach reveals that loyalty should guide the patient-physician relationship, there are still some situations in which information consent and truth telling may be controversial: in some circumstances, the physician should or may not tell the truth. The case at hand poses a dilemma regarding the right to know (Cherry & Jacob 2008).

Michael H., a 68-year-old man, was admitted for exploratory surgery of his abdomen. He is frail, and his attending physician describes him as “emotionally labile.” Marcy R. is a social worker at BFL General Hospital, who is assigned to the unit that Michael H has been admitted. After Michael’s surgery, Marcy R. was approached by Michael H.’s daughter, Ellen B. in which Ellen has told Marcy that her father’s physician had just informed her that the lab report from the exploratory surgery shows that her father has terminal cancer. Ellen said that she and the family are in shock and they have decided that they not want the hospital staff to tell her father about the terminal nature of his cancer once he recovers from anesthesia. In this essay, I will discuss the ethical dilemma of “to tell Michael or not to tell him he has terminal cancer. He has the right to confidentiality by not withholding information from him when he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, informed consent, and self-determination.

Even if patients cannot understand and make true choices, they have relatives such as family or spouse; hence, doctors can tell the truth to their relatives. Therefore, since doctors can simplify their explanations and patients’ family can make choices for them, doctors should always tell the truth.