Providing Ethical Care For Dying Patients Essay

Q1: Complete the following table, describing the needs you would have to consider when planning the different aspects of end of life care for an individual

Autonomy is the agreement to respect another’s right to self-determine a course of action such as support of independent decision making. The patient self-determination act was passed by the United states in 1990 which stated that competent people could make their wishes known regarding how they what they wanted in the end of life if they were competent or have a power of durable power of attorney who is designated to make decision on their behalf when the individual is no longer competent (American Nurses Association, 2009).

.“As medical technology continues to advance and health care choices become more complicated, the preservation of end-of-life autonomy is an increasingly important issue faced by various client populations.” (Galambos, 1998).

Many people believe that health care providers should do everything in their power to keep the patient alive. Yet, a growing population is beginning to side with the argument that in certain situations a person should be allowed death with dignity. From a terminally ill patient’s standpoint, being able to go on their own terms rather than undergoing extensive treatment that often leads to extensive suffering in their final weeks and months, brings them peace. When surveyed, the number one priority of elders is being able to maintain their independence (Matthews, 2013). This generation, does not want to become a burden for their families. Physician assisted suicide allows the patient to end their life when they decide they do not have a tolerable quality of life

End of life issues involving education on palliative care and hospice; are these issues important to you and your loved ones? The purpose of this paper is to discuss end of life care and how the legislative process affects this important topic. As the American population keeps growing, so does the amount of an aging population. Is the amount of training and education in nursing school sufficient for palliative care and hospice? Do we need to provide more training to the medical field to help support the growing need for end of life care? At some point in our careers we might be faced with helping someone in their final days. Being educated and having the ability to provide appropriate care is part of our scope of practice. (American Nurses Association, 2010, pp.1-2)

Terminally ill patients should be allowed to do whatever they wish, for they are going to die anyway. If they want to cut that string a little earlier than the scheduled and having to deal with that pain, then they should be allowed that medication that will end their life in a painless way. It is selfish to keep someone who is going through so much pain, that they want to die, alive and forcing them to ‘just deal with it’ as if it was nothing. As if they were not already going to die. We, the United States, ‘put down’ 2.4 million healthy cats and dogs every thirteen seconds, so if we can kill so many animals because they have no home or are overpopulated, like we are, then should we not be allowed to ‘put down’ our own life without much of a problem?

An ethical dilemma is a difficult situation that usually involves a conflict between moral obligations, in which to obey one would result in disobeying another (Murphy, 1997). Sedation is an ethical dilemma in palliative care because on one side it helps to relieve suffering for patients who are terminally ill and almost at the end of their lives. However, at the same time, sedation is making the patient deprived of certain bioethical principles such as autonomy, the main issue with palliative sedation is that it prohibits the patient from changing his or her decision, once sedation is commenced and informed consent also becomes complex (Cooney, 2005). The writer is in the favour of palliative sedation because it is an effective symptom controlled strategy for the patients who are nearly at the end of their lives. Moreover, it is believed that by providing sedation to a patient induce unconsciousness, which makes the patient completely unaware of the external world and tend to reduce the suffering by considering ethical and moral principles. However, some people think palliative sedation as euthanasia, which cause death because of making the patient deprive of nutrition and hydration while giving sedation. Ethical principles are going to be discussed in this essay such as autonomy, beneficence, non- maleficence and justice. Moreover, this essay also going to put light on current research

Many nurses are regularly confronted with the hopelessness and exhaustion of patients and their families making it difficult for them to find balance between the preservation of life and the enablement of a dignified death. Nurses must acknowledge their own feelings of sorrow, fear, dismay and helplessness and recognize the impact of these emotions in clinical decision making. These distressing pressures may cause a nurse to contemplate intentionally assist in ending a patient's life as a humane and compassionate answer, however; the conventional goals and standards of the nursing profession mitigate against it.

With the passage of the Death with Dignity Act of 1997 it brought with it the topics of moral and ethical issues that surround the medical community and those roles nurses should play when assisting patients that may want to have this method as an option. The article begins with the Death with Dignity Act of 1997 and the 2 opposing sides views on this issue. On one hand, you have those who feel that prescribing drugs to end life would be a violation of previous laws, established professional ethics leading to abuses in the medical community if allowed to be practiced. Others view is that since death ultimately releases one from suffering, it is already part of the nurses professional, ethical, and moral duty to help their patients to ease any pain and suffering.

The NMC (2015) are the providers of the Nursing Code of Conduct. The code contains the professional standards to which all nurses must uphold, allowing for accountability of patients that come into their care. As well as the code of conduct, all nursing professionals have a responsibility to develop their knowledge in relation to law within clinical practice, and furthermore, ethical frameworks that are linked to judgment and decision making when providing care (Savage & Moore, 2006). In light of this, the overall aim of this essay is to elaborate on issues surrounding law and ethics in nursing. To do so, a case study has been chosen from a previous clinical experience. The focus of the case study will be on the decision of withdrawal from life sustaining treatment. Emphasis will be largely on the law and ethics concerning the issue of withdrawal from treatment. Moreover, the ethics and law involved in the palliative/advanced end of life care planning and decision making. In order to protect the identity and uphold the confidentiality of the case study, a pseudonym will be used throughout. Hendrick (2005) portrays confidentiality as being ‘one of the most important and well established moral obligations of health-care ethics’.

Patient self- Determination Act (PSDA) encourages people to make a decision about the extent of medical care they want to accept or refuse (American Cancer Society, 2015). It is the responsibility of ethics committee to make patients aware of their rights. Also, “committee members need to be educational and advisory in nature, they should educate themselves, other health care workers, patients and the family members regarding the ethical principles and organization’s policy relating to the ethical issues”(Alexander & Kavaler, 2014). Many people are not aware with the advance directives, they don’t know how to complete advance directives (ADs), what are the state regulation to complete ADs and only a few people discuss their preferences with doctor, which do not protect their autonomy during the time of end- of- life (House & Lach, 2014). Health care professionals must be competent to provide information on ADs so that patients will be able to make a decision. In addition, patient’s wishes and ADs need to be discussed among family members and the health care providers so ethics committee plays an integral role in protecting patients’ preferences and supporting ADs process for

Tony Nicklson, a father of two, starves himself to death after the Supreme Court rejects his request to “die with dignity” with the help of medical professionals. A graduate student faces ten years in jail for shooting his dying brother after the court refused his plea to die. A retired magistrate, suffering from multiple sclerosis, refuses to take any medication or palliatives to help the fight to change the law on physician assisted dying. These are some of the recent headlines telling stories of people fighting to legalize physician aid in dying (PAD). Currently, PAD is illegal in most states except for Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont. I believe that PAD is an essential constitutional right, and should be legalized in all

Much like nurses in end of life care, medical personnel need to embrace a proactive attitude that incorporates

Autonomy applies to the profession of nursing because the patient should always be allowed to make decisions regarding their care while being treated with respect and dignity; however, autonomy can serve as a limiting agent when the patient decides to refuse care that would be of benefit to them. Autonomy is a sensitive issue because it allows the patient to choose to die and all health care can do from that point is allow the patient to do so comfortably. With healthcare always being one step ahead, it allows a surrogate to serve as a voice piece for that patient when they are unable to make decisions. However, that surrogate can end up making decisions they think is best for the patient ignoring the patients’ will. The responsibility of the nurse and interdisciplinary team is to inform and educate the patient and patient’s surrogate on all aspects of care to include medical diagnosis, treatment, and care plan so that the patient and

Hospice care requires a high level of care like those of and health care field. End of life care involves meeting the psychological, spiritual, social and medical needs of the patient and family. This paper will inform the reader the importance of the caregiver involvement in the plan of care of the patient and how their partaking improves the quality of life during the patient final phases of life. Information provided will explain the relationship of end of life care and the QSEN competency of patient centered care (citation). Readers will learn how placing the patient and family values, preferences and goals first will ensure the level of optimum care is met. According to National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (2017) the goal of a hospice nurse is to ensure that terminal diagnosed patient achieve a quality of life during their final days. It involves a team approach skilled medical care, symptom management, and psychosocial support tailored to the patient’s needs. I do this in my profession as a registered nurse by not only concentrating on the physical needs of my clients, but concentrating on the emotional, spiritual and social welling.