preview

The Effects Of Artificial Nutrition On Health Professionals

Decent Essays

Imagine being admitted to the hospital and being denied your right to have food and water. While it is known that adequate fluid and nutrition is needed for survival, many health professionals are currently going through an ethical dilemma of whether or not to provide artificial tube feeding for patients with terminal diseases. This ethical decision that affects health professionals must take into consideration the recent research that opposes ANH for this population. These studies have demonstrated that artificial nutrition provides higher risk of medical complications, increased pain, and false hope of health recovery to these patients. Professionals have to be mentally and physically prepared to explain to families the pros and cons of artificial nutrition so that together they can arrive to the best ethical decision for each patient (Brody, Hermer, Scott, Grumbles, Kutac, & McCammon, 2011). For Family and consumer science professionals such as dietetic students provide support to solve this problem when an ethical educational background is incorporated into their major (Hira,1996).
Artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) is defined as providing artificial nutrients and water through an insertion of a tube either into the stomach, the gastrointestinal tract, or through a vein. (Best, 2010). Physicians prefer to use artificial nutrition as the last resort for any type of nutritional feeding. Temporarily artificial nutrition is used until the patient recuperates and is

Get Access