Introduction
Mr. Ahmad has just been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and his family has requested the healthcare team not to reveal the diagnosis to him, as well as not to treat him. The ethical dilemma encountered by the health care professions in this case scenario is whether, to tell the truth, or hide from him when he asks about his condition. Therefore, this assignment aims to discuss the ethical issue and dilemma with four principles involved such as autonomy, veracity, beneficence and non-maleficence. In addition, I will be discussing the legal issue based on SNB Standards of Practices, “Standard 2: Responsibility and Accountability”
The Ethical Issue
Firstly, one of the ethical principles that support to reveal Mr. Ahmad’s diagnosis
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Beneficence means that nurses should value patient’s autonomy, also to do good and always act in the greatest advantage of the patient. Based on Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, “Value Statement 4: Respect and preserve clients’ privacy and dignity” that nurses should prevent or resolve any situation in which patients are not given privacy or dignity. Furthermore, render correct care to support an honorable and peaceful passing in situations where life can no longer be continued. For this situation, beneficence should be well-thought-out by the nurses as informing Mr. Ahmad about his condition may let him accomplish his unfinished task of his life. Moreover, it may help in feeling more peaceful and reduce his doubts; therefore, knowing his condition could have been helped him in numerous ways. Thus, the diagnosis should not be withheld as per family’s …show more content…
Malpractice is negligence, offense, or breach of duty by a professional individual that causes a patient to be injured. Much of the time, it includes when a nurse did not meet a standard of care or to deliver care that he or she should deliver in a similar situation. According to Standards of Practices “Standard 2: Responsibility and Accountability”, the nurses have to maintain, practice, respect and promote patient’s autonomy, as well as to provide care in a responsible and accountable manner. However, keeping the truth from a patient will not enable them to come to terms with their condition and give them the alternative for further treatment. Hence, it would be better to tell the patient the truth to guarantee that the nurse will not face any lawful issues unless the patient has a lack of decision-making capacity which could be caused by mental illnesses, such as dementia or being
Position When the health care provider decide that the patient will not improve and there are no brain activities. Since her husband and her father are there, the hospital should listen to them to suspend the life support. But in this case husband want to discontinue the treatment, father want to continue the treatment, doctor does not have hope and they do not know what patient would want. In this situation, this case should be referred to the court. Court should make the decision protecting patient right, understanding their relative feelings, hospital ethical committee with doctors’ advice.
The thesis of this chapter states that in certain situations, it is crucial to listen to a medical professional, however, in others, it is very important to listen to yourself and also to do what you feel is right. The author of Complications," Atul Gawane, has written this specific chapter to persuade the reader of his thesis. If the choice you make is incorrect, then it could potentially be a matter of life and death. Atul Gawande gives multiple examples of patients that have made wrong and right decisions to prove his point. He uses the personal anecdotes of four different people, with four decisions to prove his point.
Module title: Principles of assessment and management of the acutely ill adult Module Leader: Briege King word limit: 500 student 's name: Hema Elizabeth Philip This particular case study shows the assessment and management of an acutely ill adult who presented to the emergency department. This will explain pathophysiological cause of the illness, the assessment and the treatment given to the patient consent received from the patient and my manager as I am discussing the patients information. I am using mrs.Smith as patients name as I do not want to reveal the patients original name due to the confidentiality(an bord altranais 2012). Mrs.Smith 80 years old female brought by ambulance with complaints of increased shortness of
Care ethics is the philosophical and ethical approach that emphasizes interpersonal relationships, compassion, and care between those patients and healthcare professionals. It stresses the interconnection of people and acknowledges the importance of intuition, sentiments, and emotions in making moral decisions. The first violation discussed was the lack of informed consent. Respecting the people’s bodies, especially those who are disadvantaged and marginalized is a crucial principle in care ethics. In the Tuskegee Syphilis research, the participant's right to make fully informed healthcare decisions was violated because neither their diagnosis nor the study's purpose was disclosed to them.
The family is at the center of all ethical and life-preserving decisions. Grave diagnosis like cancer is concealed from the patient by the family with belief
Sissela Bok explores the moral and ethical complexities of lying and deception in her book, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. One of the scenarios she considers is the normalization of lying and deception in medical contexts, such as in patient-doctor communication. Bok gives an example scenario of a patient who has just been diagnosed with cancer and has no other treatment options. The physician faces a difficult decision: whether to inform the patient of their diagnosis and the low chance of success with chemotherapy or to lie about the possibility of treatment. The physician chooses to tell the patient their cancer diagnosis but does not inform them of chemotherapy.
The ethical principle of autonomy provides for respect for the patient’s autonomy to make decisions and choices concerning their life and death. Respecting the patient’s autonomy goes against the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. There also exists the issue of religious beliefs the patient, family, or the caretaker holds, with which the caretaker has to grapple. The caretaker thus faces issues of fidelity to patient welfare by not abandoning the patient or their family, compassionate provision of pain relief methods, and the moral precept to neither hasten death nor prolong life.
Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas related to clinical issues, and disease and treatment decisions daily (Kangasniemi,
If we as nurses respect the confidentiality of a patient, we should do so for all the patients. However, Griffith (2007) argues that the duty of confidence should not be absolute and nurses should always consider sharing information if required. Though the principle of respecting patient autonomy and their right to confidentiality is broken here, the principle of beneficence and non-maleficence is uphold. Nurses have an obligation to protect patient’s confidentiality but the duty to warn an innocent party of imminent harm is far more critical. Therefore, breaking confidentiality here is potentially doing more good than
Military Nurse’s Dilemma Chi Tiet University of Michigan - Flint Nurses are a group of professionals who faces a variety of ethical dilemmas while working. Therefore, these dilemmas cannot only impact on their personalities but also affect their patients. However, ethical dilemmas are argumentative and difficult to deal with, so there is no “right” or “wrong” answer for them. In a military nurse’s dilemma, a military RN is ordered to force feeding a terrorist prisoner while he is undergoing interrogation, and the prisoner is on a hunger strike protesting. The nurse is torn, but fearing of reprisal if orders are disobeyed, so the nurse is appalled at the over-riding a patient’s wish by force feeding him agains his wish.
Utilitarianism and Deontology are two major ethical theories that influence nursing practice. Utilitarian principles of promoting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people parallels the nursing tenet of beneficence. Deontological principles of treating individuals with dignity, and promoting the well-being of the individual parallels the nursing tenet of non-maleficence. Utilitarian and Deontological principles can be utilized to resolve ethical dilemmas that arise in the nursing profession. The purpose of this paper is to define utilitarianism and deontology, discuss the similarities and differences between the two, and to address an ethical dilemma utilizing utilitarian and deontological principles.
This topic was chosen because medical ethics is a complex topic. It gets complicated when other peoples’ wellbeing are on the line, based off your own decisions. Medical ethics involves much consideration because many choices in the medical field cannot be taken back, so the physician only has one shot to get it
The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to
This assignment is a reflection of ethical dilemmas in nursing practice as a registered nurse; this paper is based on the group assignment which was completed for NURS3004. This reflection will include an explanation of the role that I portrayed in the group, the preparation that I did for the role, what could have been done differently, how this group assignment has impacted me in terms of working in a team and finally explain how this assignment will assist me in my future clinical practice as a newly registered nurse. The role that I played in the group was a patient who has a mental health disorder and I didn’t want his mother to know about the illness, as a front it seemed as though we had a close relationship. When my mother leaves the room I asked the nurse to keep my illness confidential as she does not really understand it.
Nurses around the world have struggled with ethical challenges in patient care, especially here in the Virgin Islands. We face an ethical dilemma in the healthcare field every day. During my freshman year in nursing school, I was taught about Florence Nightingales. Her greatest achievement was to transform nursing into a respectable profession for women (Florence-nightingale.co.uk, 2018). She reflected ethical duties of confidentiality, communication, and the importance of meeting patients ' needs.