Ethical Issue
One of the most important ethical issues in nursing is how to approach end-of-life care. Nurses have a duty to provide compassionate care in ways that respects the individual’s autonomy and dignity. As patients live longer due to advancements in medical care, nurses are increasingly being faced with care options that extend life, versus options that do not extend life but which promote quality of life through a greater acceptance of death. A related issue is physician-assisted suicide. When physician-assisted suicide is legal, nurses may have this option presented to them by patients, creating ethical dilemmas. This paper will examine multiple sides of the end-of-life issue, showing that while there is no easy or “right” solution, individual cases should highlight the means by which nurses can always ascribe to their professional duties and the ethical standards of the profession.
Point of View: Quality of Life Over Quantity
Legal Issues
With the exception of physician-assisted suicide laws and liability torts, there are no clear legal guidelines for end-of-life care in general (Pope, 2018). The principles of non-maleficence determine individual cases. However, physicians and other healthcare staff in the United States have been generally opting for life extension in all circumstances, even when doing so conflicts with patient wishes (Pope, 2018). High-profile cases like the Terry Schiavo...
2008).. This points to the ethical responsibility of nurse educators -- it is not enough to treat the disease, bit one must treat the patient. Failure to provide the proper level of education to a patient is certainly one way to fail them both ethically and medically, bit the opposite can also be true. That is, it is possible to provide too much care -- what is deemed "medically futile
Life Support vs. Dignity A decision is complicated not just by the people affected by it, but also by the people making the decision. For health care professionals, decision making is usually complex because of their role in providing care to patients and their families. One of the most difficult decisions for these professionals is scenarios involving life support or death. In these situations, health care providers work with the patient
According to this second view, contemporaneous autonomy trumps precedent autonomy because honoring precedent autonomy imposes preferences and values of a different person, the formerly competent self (Buccafumi, p. 14). The role that patient's families, doctors, health aides, pastors, chaplains and administrators, health educators and others play is crucial. Few people have executed an advanced directive, much less appointed a healthcare power of attorney by the time they enter a hospital
Life and Death: The Life Support Dilemma by Kenneth E. Schemmer M.D Kenneth Schemmer in his thorough, thought provoking book brings to life the controversial subject of the life support issue. For years, many all over the country have pondered, "What if a person were in some kind of an accident and the physicians told them that they were not going to make it?" And all that he or she
Nursing Ethical Theories Ethical Theories in Nursing Significance of Moral in Nursing Deontology vs. Utilitarianism Deontology Utilitarianism Justice Ethics vs. Care Ethics Justice Ethics Care Ethics Rights Ethics Conflict of Rights Ethical Theories in Nursing Moral philosophy has moved from addressing Plato's question of what makes the good person, to Kant's query as to the right thing to do, to Buber's concern with relationship. Whether referring to business ethics' interest in relationships between corporations and consumers; legal ethics' focus on relationships among
Ethics in the nursing and occupational therapy communities is an ongoing concern that is being addressed in a number of different arenas and manners. This paper discusses national and international frameworks that have been created to address, define and provide ethical behavior guidelines for the healthcare communities that comprise measured and timely responses to the ethics issue as it pertains to those communities. Specifically, the paper will look at ethical
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