End Of Life Care Ethical Dilemma Essay

End of life care is considered to be one of the toughest decisions to be made. The challenge of making decisions, the after care of a ended life, factors that support ending life and guidelines for the withdrawal of life are major themes throughout making this decision. These challenges can often be caused by many other factors. Throughout this literature barriers to providing good end of life care was documented throughout, one of which was the overall environment that nurses provide. Which was also described as the nurse's work load, physical layout of the facility, visitation restrictions, procedures, and

Through serving others, I have come to realize that every person, regardless of one’s cultural background, has something to offer to the community. As an immigrant, I was quite hesitant about accepting new challenges. The fear of others’ judgment regarding my performance hindered my progress. However, through serving others in various capacities, I was able to interact and help people in my community, who themselves helped me overcome my fears.  Whether helping patients at St. John Providence or assisting refugees at the American Red Cross, I was amazed as to how much my presence made a difference, especially for those who needed me to interpret for them. The gratitude these people expressed to me enhanced my sense of purpose and made me realize

The past year I have seen how much of a big difference hospice makes. I have seen how patients and their families become attached to their hospice team. I have witnessed all hospice team members working together to be supportive to families when their loved one has passed. I never knew how much of a difference hospice can make until my time at Homestead. I saw how the entire hospice team cared for each and every patient and wanted to make the patient’s last days the best they could possibly be. Homestead hospice is fulfilling its goal of making the patient as comfortable as can be while in the dying process. Homestead Hospice is contracted with local nursing homes and assisted living places to help if a patient wants placement, or if

Hospice and palliative care can be easily intertwined; they are both concerned with promoting comfort and relieving patient pain. Hospice and palliative care, however, are different in some aspects. Patients who receive hospice care are nearing the end of their lives and there is no effort to cure their disease; the goal is to provide pain relief, a sense of belonging from family and friends if desired, support through the dying stages, and to assure that the person is able to die with dignity. Palliative care is also focused on reducing discomfort; however, the patient receiving care can be at any stage in their disease. Additionally, palliative care can also be administered during a time when a patient is receiving treatment to cure their illness.

The purpose of experiencing a hospice clinical was to give me the opportunity to observe and participate in the care of my patients who are receiving hospice care in their home. My first encounter occurred in Jenks, Oklahoma at the patient’s personal home. Upon entering the house, we were greeted by his wife and one of their sons. Before we spoke with the patient we had a pre-conference in the patient’s living room with his wife. My nurse asked how the patient’s wife was doing and the wife stated that she needs more help with his care. She feels like her husband needs some form of an assistive device for walking, getting in and out of bed, an assistive device for urinating, and a chaplain. In response to this statement the nurse asked her if she would like a walker,

Palliative care continues to evolve in providing better end-of-life care and so does nursing care. Thus, nursing practice is enhanced to satisfy the demand of the palliative care. A nurse provides complex care and fulfils the needs of the patients. Nursing involves in caring work, which focus on patient experiencing agony in palliative and haematological cancer care. Nurses worked in a taxing environment, that can be highly stressful, and often they experience physical, psychological and spiritual exhaustion. This nature of work can have devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of a nurse. There are three concepts related to adverse consequences of caring work: these are compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious traumatization.

In this case study the primary nurse, Amelia Wilkerson, is caring for a patient, Katy Palmer who has recently been admitted to the hospital for fatigue and abnormal lab counts. The patient asks Amelia for information regarding her diagnosis. Amelia has seen Katy’s results and knows that she has been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The ethical dilemma seen in this situation is that it is outside of the scope of practice for Amelia to discuss Katy’s original diagnosis with her. This is reserved for the doctor alone. However, as a nurse that has developed a relationship with her patient it would be very difficult to not answer her question honestly. In addition, the patient might feel more comforted hearing the diagnosis from her nurse rather than the doctor as the nurse has been caring for her and they have developed a therapeutic relationship.

I felt fortunate to have attended the session with Bonnie, an epitome for an ideal hospice care provider. She demonstrates an ability to connect anyone in personal level and with full attention; thereby, making both the recipients and their family feel cared. As she shared her experience, it was reflected that she made sure the care is provided to the patients spiritually; and other needs are also taken care of. Bonnie joined hospice care after realizing the previous career of a social worker was not fulfilling. It was inspiring that she reflected it is never too late to change a career trajectory. Her compassion is definitely the best take away for me from today’s session.

Everyone deserves to determine their time of death. Of course under the giving circumstances a terminal illness. This was the case of Brittany Maynard who at the age of 29 was diagnosed with brain cancer. Her cancer consisted of a partial craniotomy and a partial resection of her temporal lobe. Her Original diagnostic was wrong, she later found out she only had six months to live. Doctors recommended brain radiation to avoid the pain and the likely hood it will increase her chances of death. She refused to let her family watch her die in a painful way. Maynard took the tough decision and “started researching death with dignity. It is an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live” (1). Maynard was very well qualified, but unfortunately the State of California did not offer “Death with Dignity”. Therefore Maynard transferred to Oregon because it was the only state that approved the death with dignity act. Moving wasn’t easy, there had to be major changes “I met the criteria for death with dignity in Oregon, but establishing residency in the state to make use of the law required a monumental number of changes”(1). Even though Maynard struggled to have the right to die

People have moral and ethical values that assist them in making decisions about their healthcare on a daily basis. What if a person found out that they had a terminal illness and only had months to live? What if those few months would be filled with treatments, pain and suffering, tear filled family members, and high cost medical bills? Physician- assisted suicide remains a debated topic which causes physicians, nurses and those involved to take a look at what they value and what they are willing to do in order to carry out a patient’s wishes. Physician- assisted suicide can be thought of as helping a patient in carrying out their last days by providing the information and medication needed to end their life. The physician

The main purpose of this chapter is to identify the arguments in favour and against assisted dying and to set out a framework of safeguards that would accompany any changes in legislation. This chapter will help show how the concerns regarding the legalisation of assisted dying are outweighed by the arguments in favour of a change in legislation.

While virtually everyone has heard of Hospice care, far fewer people fully understand exactly what hospice does. Of course, a big part of the Hospice mission involves easing the passing of terminally ill people who are facing impending death. For this reason, the general public often confuses a hospice referral with a death sentence.

Webster’s dictionary defines suicide as the act of killing yourself because you do not want to continue living. Most cases of suicide in society deal with persons of mental illness who make irrational decisions based on illogical thoughts to end their lives. When speaking of physician assisted suicide, also known as physician aided death, it is not referring to an irrational decision to end one’s life but rather a calculated informed decision to end one’s life due to terminal illness (Starks PhD). Physician aided death is a multilayer issue in which the layers must be peeled away to see the reasons for the decision, the process it involves, and the reasons why this should be allowed in our society.

Assisted suicide is that a topic that comes with a great amount of debate. According to NHS choices, assisted suicide is the act of deliberately assisting or encouraging another person to kill themselves. Both active anesthesia and assisted suicide are illegal in the english law. Active anesthesia is when a person intervenes to end someone 's life, for example, by injecting them with a large dose of sedatives. Passive anesthesia is when a person causes death by withholding that is necessary to maintain life. Depending on the circumstances, anesthesia can be regarded at manslaughter or murder that is punishable by law. Under the terms of the Suicide Act (1961) assisted

Assisted suicide is a rather controversial issue in contemporary society. When a terminally ill patient formally requests to be euthanized by a board certified physician, an ethical dilemma arises. Can someone ethically end the life of another human being, even if the patient will die in less than six months? Unlike traditional suicide, euthanasia included multiple individuals including the patient, doctor, and witnesses, where each party involved has a set of legal responsibilities. In order to understand this quandary and eventually reach a conclusion, each party involved must have their responsibilities analyzed and the underlying guidelines of moral ethics must be investigated. Even though assisted suicide was not discussed throughout the sixteen to eighteen hundreds, ethical philosophers investigated the roots of human morals in an attempt to create an overarching rule that would help determine if “death with dignity” is morally justified.