Minor Preg Pregnancy in Emancipated

Minor Preg

Pregnancy in Emancipated Minors: Implications for Nursing Practice

Every patient encountered in a nursing practice is unique, and constitutes a host of ethical, medical, legal, and personal considerations that all need to be addressed in a comprehensive and compassionate manner. Some situations, however, are especially complex and/or demanding when it comes to ensuring that all considerations are properly examined and effectively dealt with by nurse practitioners, and the quality of overall care provided in such situations is dependent on the knowledge obtained prior to encountering such a specialized set of circumstances. Providing comprehensive nursing care to a pregnant minor is one such situation, and the element of legal emancipation creates another complicating factor in the provision of proper support, achieving informed consent, and a variety of other care elements. The following paragraphs provide an overview of how such situations should be encountered and handled as a part of the course of normal nursing practice.

All four areas of concern identified above -- ethics, medicine, law, and person -- are impacted by the level of education and care a minor receives during their pregnancy, with many pregnant minors (like other adolescents) using the emergency department as their sole means of receiving care (Valvano, 2009). This can lead not only to greater degrees of medicinal complication during pregnancy and labor, but can also create problems achieving truly informed consent (Valvano, 2009; Broaddus & Chandrasekhar, 2011). Nurses attending an emancipated minor, who is far less likely to have additional adult support and access to necessary knowledge, should address ongoing learning with the patient at every opportunity.

In some states, the legal emancipation of a minor can be considered complete simply by the fact of a pregnancy, and in many states emancipation is assumed to exist in terms of medical decision making as soon as a pregnancy is diagnosed (Broaddus & Chandrasekhar, 2011). Practicing nurses must be careful and ensure that they are following both laws and patient wishes as much as possible when it comes to determining emancipated status and altering treatment or conduct as such. If a minor is confirmed as emancipated, however, they are considered a full adult when it comes to capacity to make medical decisions, receive full information, etc., and this legal status can lead to other ethical and personal issues (Broaddus & Chandrasekhar, 2011). Not only are emancipated minors less likely to have external educational support, as mentioned above, but they are also less likely to have the emotional and financial support of other pregnant adolescents and most pregnant women generally (Valvano, 2009). Nurses should take these factors into consideration when providing care to pregnant emancipated minors, extending what personal support is appropriate and determining needs for external care as well as potential avenues for providing such assistance.