Substance Use Disparity In Nursing

The documentary, A Death of One’s Own, explores the end of life complexities that many terminal disease patients have to undergo in deciding on dying and dignity. It features three patients, their families, and caregivers debating the issue of physician-assisted suicide or pain relief than may speed up death. One character, Jim Witcher has ALS and knows the kind of death he is facing and wants to control its timing. Kitty Rayl is suffering from terminal cancer and wants to take advantage of her state’s Death with Dignity Act and take medication to terminate her life. Ricky Tackett, on the other hand, has liver failure and together with his family and caregiver agrees on terminal sedation to relieve his delirium and pain.

Across the world abusing prescription drugs causes more deaths than street drugs do combined (“International Statistics”). Prescription drugs are so easy to get ahold of and so easy to get addicted to. The misuse of prescription drugs have gotten out of hand. These drugs can cause unintentional overdoses easily. The misuse of prescription drugs can lead to addiction, affect the health of users in a dramatic way, and even cause death.

Relevant legal and ethical considerations, focusing on the 4 main ethical principles and how each of these apply to this case using research evidence.

Drug abuse is the habitual taking of addictive or illegal drugs in order to feel a euphoria, treat pain, or help with sleeping disorders. Drug abuse is a chronic brain disease that causes drug use despite the harmful consequences to the user and the people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the dystopian society portrayed is oblivious to the impact of the censorship around them. Books are banned and if found, they are burned along with their houses. The people in this society do not have time to think about anything because they are constantly surrounded by the constant chaos of loud noises on commercials or televisions and are over stimulated. Addiction and drug abuse is used as a way to escape the harsh problems in society.

Your discussion presents an interesting perspective on business principles. Managing financial needs of a hospital and patient’s satisfaction goes hand and hand in the hospital field. This also can create a negative impact when it comes to prescribing pain medication. An ethical dilemma arises for emergency room providers who in relation to new reimbursement tactics centered upon patient satisfaction scores (Kelly, Johnson, & Harbison, 2016) I feel that these doctors are feeling pressure to prescribe pain medications in order to increase patients scores and in return improve reimbursement for their units. This is contributing to the increase of opioid abuse that is already prevalent in this nation. This needs to be taken into consideration

An ethical issue related to medical care is pain management and the inappropriate judgment of patients being labeled as “Drug Seeking”. There are statistics that prove there is a rise in abuse in opiates within communities. However, at what point does the nurse or provider get to decide what is an adequate pain threshold and how much they should endure? When does the ethical duty to relieve pain and suffering subside to personal biases? Patients deserve to be treated with dignity and respect as they entrust medical providers to relief their pain and suffering.

Recent reforms can curb the opioid epidemic. Yes, health care professionals have realized the complex problem and they now understand the problem and what needs to be done. According to CQ Researcher, “Experts see some progress in the fight against opioid painkiller abuse. After peaking in 2012, the number of prescriptions written for opioids declined 12 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to IMS Health, a market research company. Symphony Health Solutions, a data company that studies the pharmaceutical industry, found an 18 percent drop in that period.”

Patient care is initial assessment collaborated with commitment for the nurse to care for the patient and build a trusting comfort relationship to meet patients’ fundamental needs (Kitson et al, 2014). Patient-centred care focuses on involving patients’ by allowing choice and decision-making. It takes into consideration patients’ individual physical, psychosocial, cultural and emotional needs (Feo and Kitson,

I. Importance: As American deaths from drug overdoses continue to rise in the United States, the nation is faced with a public health crisis so profound that in October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic to be a national public health emergency (Merica). President Trump’s declaration came after numerous studies indicating the danger opioid addiction posed; for example, a 2016 study entitled “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths—United States, 2010-2015” claimed that drug overdose deaths “nearly tripled during 1999-2014,” reaching a startling high 52,404 deaths in 2015 (Rudd, et al). These statistics are more than just disturbing revelations regarding the opioid crisis; they are evidence of a serious problem that is rapidly affecting the lives of more and more Americans every year.

While participating in the “Deteriorating Patient” simulation, learning to complete a Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) report while caring for a deteriorating patient was the most challenging task to complete. After receiving report and beginning the initial interaction with the patient, my confidence level was on a steady rise. Everything seemed to flow well and initiating conversation while building a rapport with the patient was also very easy to complete. Once the patient started to deteriorate, I found myself becoming unorganized and my thoughts were racing. Though I was managing the situation very well, I called for a charge nurse because I realized I needed help. After calling for the Charge Nurse and asking for assistance, my racing thoughts slowed down some. I used this moment to notify the provider of the patient’s status and request a visit to the patient’s room. Completing the SBAR with a provider in a moment where the situation was hectic is not something I do very well. My

The tem ethics refers to the moral principles that guide a person’s behavior, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of their actions. In the field of nursing, these moral principles govern the relationship between the nurse and the patient, members of the healthcare team, and society at large. Nurses must constantly question whether a certain procedure or course of treatment is in the best interest of the patient. When viewing the film “Miss Evers’ Boys”, it was clear that the doctors, researchers, and even Miss Evers were not acting in the best interest of all the patients. This movie depicted true events of a study that took place in Macon County, Alabama, in 1932. This study was referred to as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Opioids are also frequently used non-medically for their euphoric effects or to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Examples of opioids are morphine, heroin, oxycodone, and methadone. Opioid overdose is an acute and serious condition due to excessive opioids use. Dependence on prescription opioids can stem from treatment of chronic pain and in recent years is the cause of the increased number of opioid overdoses. Opioids are very addictive substances, having serious life threatening consequences in case of intentional or accidental overdose. The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent,

Since the addition of Crossing the Quality Chasm six aims of quality patient care was created by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), there has been a significant change in the effectiveness and condition of patient care. Before this report came out in 2001, health care providers did not realize that they were not providing proper care to patients in addition to disorganization and complexity of standards of care. The IOM was able to determine that, “failure of system processes, poor communication, and unhealthy work environments contribute to medical errors, ineffective delivery of care, and stress among health professionals” (Winterbottom 2012). It is essential for patients to feel

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.

A percentage of the population doesn’t consider prescription drugs very dangerous because they are prescribed by doctors. Unfortunately, that's true and it is very concerning to other people who are aware of the problem. We as a community must help each other and inform each other about the effects prescription drugs have. These types of drugs develop addicts which can be treated effectively depending the type of drug they took. There are two main treatments behavioral treatment and medications. Behavioral treatment helps addicts change unhealthy ways of thinking, counseling and sometimes psychotherapy. Medication treatment might sound wrong, why give them other prescribed drugs?. The addict suffers withdrawals symptoms and to help them stop using opioids, we supply them with other none dangerous drugs which close to the same effect. Treatment is possible, we just gotta reduce the epidemic among our young