strongly advocate on behalf of the patient's autonomy. The clash between patient autonomy and the healthcare system and its representatives like nurses can only be resolved by being honest in this situation. The patient is under a high degree of stress, not only because of his health condition and the fear that brings out in him, but due to other stressful life events including his financial situation. He was also supposed to get married immediately before the bypass surgery was scheduled, and this is bound to add to his level of stress. The primary issue here is providing what the patient… Continue Reading...
frameworks categorically uphold the duty of nurses to provide consistent care under the rubric of guiding ethical principles like patient autonomy, right to knowledge, and nonmaleficence. Non-disclosure is a form of lying or deceit in that it is a deliberate withholding of information from patient about that patient’s own body. Likewise, non-disclosure inhibits the ability of the patient “to make appropriate decisions about the treatment that she needed as a result of the error,” (Sorrell, 2017, p. 1). Advanced practice nurses also operate under the ethical duty to care and to not do harm. Disclosure prevents further harm from occurring: such as the harm that arises out of eroded… Continue Reading...
and death is inevitable (Chochinov, 2016). Arguments in favor of physician-assisted death focus on patient autonomy above all, but also on the beneficence of alleviating unnecessary suffering. Beneficence is in fact one of the pre-eminent moral objectives of the medical profession. Likewise, respect for patient autonomy and the right of the patient to dignified treatment have led to the “death with dignity” movement that precipitated the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (Death with Dignity, n.d.). If autonomy, dignity, and… Continue Reading...
significance of increased patient autonomy to accelerate patient recovery following discharge. Nurse activities have been grouped into 14 elements on the basis of human needs. Nursing roles have been labeled as: “substitutive” (i.e., doing for patients), “supplementary” (assisting patients), and “complementary” (working together with patients); the overall aim is facilitating maximum possible patient autonomy. Henderson defines nursing as a unique role involving aiding people, whether hale or ailing, to perform tasks that contribute to their recovery or wellbeing which would have normally been independently performed by the individual if he/she possessed the required… Continue Reading...
of fear of litigation than out of duty to care, duty to respect patient autonomy, and duty to respect patient dignity (Pope, 2018). From the perspective of providing compassionate and holistic care, nurses need to honor a patient’s wishes even if those wishes are to terminate life and to help patients embrace mortality with a sense of peace and acceptance.
Scope of Practice
Within the general scope of practice, end of life care issues arise in all healthcare settings but primarily in hospice and palliative care environments, including nursing homes. A survey of nine nursing home residents and their relatives showed that residents… Continue Reading...
conditions. Moreover, physician-assisted suicide respects patient autonomy, which is a fundamental tenet in bioethics (American Medical Association, 2018). In other words, it is unethical to force a patient to continue suffering unnecessarily when death is certainly inevitable based on expert medical opinion. In cases where there is a terminal illness that entails suffering, “death could sometimes be in a persons best interests and a lesser evil than other bad things that might happen to her,” (Kamm, n.d., p. 1). Physician-assisted suicide is the ethical choice because it preserves patient autonomy, alleviates suffering, and promotes the… Continue Reading...
related to the creation of Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities, they fulfill most of the core ethical objectives of the profession including patient autonomy, beneficence, equity, and social justice. Nurses are committed to care at every level of delivery: the individual, family, and community (Pope, Hough & Chase, 2016). The principle of beneficence means that nurses act in ways that benefit their patients, including their extended families, not through paternalistic actions but through patient empowerment. Patient empowerment depends on knowledge and information, but also on awareness and access of public health services. Communities that have robust healthy infrastructure are beneficent communities, and nurses have an ethical obligation to participate in urban planning… Continue Reading...
fails to provide adequate evidence or reasoning in favor of their position. For example, the article mentions the need for respecting patient autonomy but does not indicate how patient autonomy can be respected in cases where a person is suffering from an incurable terminal condition.
Article in Favor
An article published by the organization Death with Dignity outlines the terminology used in physician-assisted dying. The purpose of the article is to better inform the public about what is meant by physician-assisted suicide, but ultimately the authors are in favor of legalized physician-assisted… Continue Reading...
. . it doesn't make sense” (Weissman, 1999, p. 149). Weissman (1999) states that while DNR orders were “designed to ensure patient autonomy while at the same time identifying patients in whom resuscitation is not indicated,” they have come to serve, unfortunately, as “an example of how a well-meaning application of modern medical ethics [leads] to untold patient/family suffering and…health professional distress” (p. 149). To address the issues of suffering and distress so often associated with DNR today, there is significant need to address the issue of DNR orders at the national level—for two reasons: 1) so that there is national uniformity in the approach that nurses must take, and 2)… Continue Reading...
it. The strongest argument in favor of transplanted uterus births is the ethic of patient autonomy. A woman who has access to a medical procedure, who is informed about the pros and cons of that procedure, and who makes her decisions with the full awareness and support of the medical team has every legal and ethical right to choosing that option. The treatment exists, and in spite of being risky, presents one of the most exciting new options in assisted reproductive technologies. Other reasons why healthcare workers should participate in this procedure is that doing so would promote new research and thereby potentially improve… Continue Reading...
model has veered towards paternalism, in spite of ethical principles guarding patient autonomy. Crowdsourcing empowers patients, allowing them to receive accurate medical diagnoses anonymously and from a team of medical professionals. Especially in light of the already impersonal nature of the modern medical model, crowdsourcing does not supplant the role that doctors and nurses play. In fact, many patients “feel as if their doctors aren’t actually listening to them,” which is why they turn to crowdsourcing in the first place (Sruthi, on “Blind Spot,” 1).
Whereas using the Internet for self-diagnosis can be problematic, leading to misdiagnosis and hypochondria, crowdsourcing medicine… Continue Reading...
