Case Analysis for Nursing Ethics Paper Essay

Overview A forty-eight year old female patient was brought into the emergency department with petechiae/purpura distributed above her epidermis. Her spouse reported that she began to bleed via her nostrils and mouth area.

She all of a sudden appeared to have experienced what seemed to be unexplained craters on her human body and was semi comatose. In a condition of stress, her spouse brought her to the crisis department. Having a heart rate of 180, her blood pressure was 60/24 and she was going into endotoxic shock.

Your woman received emergency care that made her stable enough to be transferred to the ICU where the girl became mindful and in a position to communicate. The medical crew explained the seriousness of her condition and their programs for her treatment but the girl declined their very own proposal for even more care and complained about inadequate insurance policy for that medical center. She additional professed her faith in God for divine treatment. The medical team was then confronted with offering this kind of patient treatment regardless of her ability to pay out to avoid the imminent danger of her giving the hospital during those times.

Medical Symptoms This forty-eight year old female patient, who no medical history in this clinic was identified as having Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC). DIC is known as a rare, deadly condition that prevents usual blood coagulation in an specific. A treatment refusal or decline may hasten the disease method resulting in abnormal clotting (thrombosis) or bleeding (hemorrhage) through the body bringing about shock, organ failure or perhaps death. Prognosis varies depending on underlying disorder and the extent of coagulation. Regardless of the trigger, the diagnosis is often poor, with 10-50% of individuals dying.

The purpose of treatment should be to stop blood loss and prevent fatality. According to WebMD (2007), in DIC, the body’s natural capability to regulate clotting does not function properly. This kind of causes the platelets to clump and clog small blood vessels through the body. This kind of excessive coagulation damages organs, destroys bloodstream cells, and depletes the supply of platelets and other clotting factors in order that the blood is no longer able to clot normally. This kind of often triggers widespread blood loss, both internally and outwardly, a condition that can be reversed if treatment is carried out promptly.

Current indication for treatment contain interventions including transfusion of blood cellular material and other blood products to change what have been lost through bleeding. Quite a few tests to ascertain the possible cause of this condition have to be done because it is usually a first regarding a disease just like cancer or it could be brought on by one other major health issue. Patient Personal preferences The patient is usually informed of the benefits of follow-up interventions following emergency proper care as well as the likelihood of losing functions of main organs and even death with no following affluence being executed. The rule of autonomy comes to play since it is usually her directly to choose where, when and exactly how she gets her medical care.

Based on the medical statement and her personal causes of deciding to leave the hospital against medical health advice, there seems to be no proof that the girl with mentally incapable. There is also simply no justification in disregarding her requests on the other hand, it is uncertain if the lady actually knows and appreciates the situation. Her preferences were to be signed AMA (against medical advice) thus she can find cheaper, option care. Her husband, who had been present with her, tried to convince her to accept the teams’ proposal but the lady insisted that she could not afford that.

In my opinion, the sufferer decision was as a result of her ignorance of what alternatives was open to her. Standard of living The quality of existence for this patient is significantly compromised as a result of symptoms linked to this prognosis (bleeding, syncope, weakness, difficulty breathing, etc). Mentioned previously earlier, DIC could be resulting from an underlying disease such as cancer. If so , chemotherapy and radiation could help alleviate symptoms and give her a vibrant life expectancy. Also, there is the possibility that she would encounter tremendous medical progress with treatment if her analysis has to do with platelet malfunction.

Yet , we are unable to tell, seeing that she rejected any suggestions by the crew to carry out blood tests. Without immediate treatment, she runs the risk of damage to major internal organs of her body, which could eventually lead to death. Period is of importance here since the longer your woman delays involvement, the more likely she has irrevocable damage that might adversely alter her previous quality of life.

Moral issues that might arise with this affected person is the urgent care the lady got, this got her stable enough to wherever she may refuse treatment. An assumption that we could make about acquiring that treatment is, what if she got into a DIC coma and had to get on a ventilator? ‘. She’d have been unconscious and may possibly not be able to argument whether the girl receives treatment or not. Contextual features Without spreading aspersions, the key reason why, obvious in my experience, for refusal of attention is financial. The patient discussed shopping for more affordable healthcare. This is certainly a patient delivered to American missionaries in Brazil.

Since an American citizen, she used the contacting of her parents and was also a missonary in Brazil for many of her life. Your woman married a man from Great britain who is unaware of how the American system works. Her cause is validated because your woman probably got little to no sociable security and with her sojourn in Brazil, we can say that this lady has been accultured. Therefore her outlook and way of thinking might affect her decision about healthcare in the usa.

Another contextual feature is religion and faith, the sufferer said that her faith in God would heal her but failed to see that this may be how come she just visited the hospital in those days. It is difficult to attribute her decision only to faith or fund alone yet one thing that stands out is the fact that her hubby tried to encourage her or else. Still, the lady kept stating this was what she wanted. Her spouse seemed helpless as he tried to communicate with the team however the individual kept saying that this was regarding her certainly not him.

My patient’s not enough insurance, her job being a missionary and her lack of ability to pay acts as a opinion that would misjudgment the providers’ evaluation of her standard of living. Analysis The goal of medicine requires promoting overall health, curing disease, optimizing quality of life, preventing untimely death, enhancing function (maleficence), educating and counseling, steering clear of harm (non-maleficence) and supporting in a relaxing death. The ethical situation is choosing to let her go depending on her wants (autonomy) vs . doing what seems to be the entire right issue (paternalism), which can be giving her treatment (beneficence), thus stopping harm (non-maleficence).

The maleficent nature of medicine propels they to encourage the patient of what they believe would regain her health. Within a bid to do good(maleficence), she got emergency proper care that manufactured her secure enough to communicate and state her wishes. In addition to maleficence and non-maleficence you will discover multiple moral issues embedded in this case; the medical group is up against honoring this kind of patient’s autonomy and letting her proceed when they find out she could possibly be dead in a few hours without treatment.

Nevertheless the individual is exercising her autonomy at her own loss because your woman and her husband got adequate disclosure communicated clearly by the health-related team about the reasons for treatment and the rewards & burdens related to her decision. The team’s scope of disclosure covered her current medical state, the possible concours to improve diagnosis and their suggestion based on medical judgement. In addition , they are faced with medically determining her decisional capacity as a result of possibility that her mental state might be troubled by the pathology and her inability to cover care. If perhaps proven to be unskilled, then interventions are accomplished regardless of what your woman wants.

Hence, the medical team can deliberately override this patient’s autonomy for their perceived notion of beneficence (paternalism). While medical practitioners, they weighs the consequence (utilitarianism) of allowing her move. To all of them, the action that would develop the best total result is to go ahead and give her treatment. The ethical theory of deontology gives the team, the moral responsibility and responsibility to do very good and prevent harm.

Compassion and sympathy (Ethics of care) also play a big function here, look at a patient who committed her life to helping others, yet in her time of need wasn’t able to get reciprocity. These emotions should play a major role in how the team determines to carry on. The doctor involved with this patient has an obligation to get to know this patient so that she can efficiently advocate for her.

Inasmuch?nternet site know she has the right to decline treatment, I actually strongly believe that her refusal is based on the insubstantiality details and her lack of familiarity with what is available to her. Advice I recommend which the patient’s autonomy be strengthened not crowded out by giving her information on precisely what is available to her. An counsel (her registered nurse, case administrator or cultural worker) ought to be assigned with her. In addition , the Chaplain needs to be invited to supply spiritual counselling.

Asking the ideal questions, getting to understand her fears and giving her hope. Many hospitals and treatment centers have affected person navigators which can help determine school funding for people who cannot afford care or who do not have Medicaid/insurance. The team should encourage the patient that at this point funds is of not any consequence, her life and health come first in other words everything will be done to get her aid. I actually also advise that the team critically asseses the decision-making ability of the sufferer since it determines whether a patient’s health care decisions will be wanted and recognized.

Furthermore the patient should also be educated on and encouraged to do place advanced directives to market her autonomy and avoid a situation where there is no one to determine in case the girl with incapacitated. Justification In my opinion, Persons respond positively to people, items, beliefs and circumstances that hold significance, worth and passion on their behalf. Pesut’s (2009) article, confirms that combining spirituality into care where appropriate, gets the potential to take full advantage of health care top quality.

For this to be effective, the health care team has to look at the sufferer holistically, they have to put into consideration her job of faith and just how getting the chaplain involved can convince her that the medical team does not just need her cash rather they value her worth. Therefore, paternalism being a recommendation seems to be arbitrary and counteracts the autonomy from the patient, but Whitney and McCullough (2007) in their content Physicians Quiet Decisions: Mainly because Patient Autonomy Does not Usually Come First, offer support to selective paternalism. They believe Patients’ ideals and preferences play varying roles in medical decisions (Whitney ainsi que al. 2004).

Indeed my personal patient’s refusal to accept proper care was not since she planned to die yet because her values of faith and her preference to spend within her means trumped getting the instant intervention. Be all you need to say that culture can be considered in this case since it influences ideals and preferences. My patient’s background was Brazilian, this really is a country where there is tiny trust to get the health care system.

Private hospitals and treatment centers are more interested in how much cash they can help to make. So , People who reside right now there, do not have routine checkup, they generally wait till they can be about to pass away before they go to a doctor. And in this time they are constantly visiting spots of worship in opinion that they would be miraculously healed.

As a result, my patient probably had many symptoms over a period of time but did not go to the clinic, incidentally once she was brought in, it absolutely was a matter of life and death. Together with the team’s familiarity with her analysis and its treatment, my patient’s preference became largely irrelevant. Yet, the physicians wanted to respect her autonomy and her feeling of dignity by maintaining her part in the decision-making.

Because medical practitioners all of us uphold the goals of shared decision-making and of strengthening patients to create important options. However , these objectives give important observations, not universal answers. In medicine, because elsewhere, specific choice, nevertheless highly all of us value this, must contend with individual wellbeing and with constraints of the time and cash hence the decisive aspect will depend on the particular situation in front of you. (Whitney and McCullough 3 years ago p. 37). Next, that they explained that decision-making, whether silent or perhaps spoken by physician has to be understood when it comes to the scientific encounter. In fact the overriding of her autonomy was for her very own good.

My personal rationale pertaining to encouraging advanced directives especially if she is considered competent at the moment is, in the event she is unable to make a decision later on, something and someone will probably be in place to assist. It will help to steer future specialized medical decisions and promote assurance in the decision of the surrogate she selects. According to Lynch, Mathes and Sawicki (2008), patients are in the best situation to make options for themselves, or at least a position that is superior to that held simply by any other get together. Therefore , affected person directives has to be enforced, nevertheless not through the mechanism of strict the liability. (p.

158). Therefore , a decision written and signed by the patient lawfully would dominate, in the event that the girl becomes incapacitated and cannot decide she would already have that in place. Medical practitioners are encouraged to advise all patients’ about the value of progress directives since it removes the duty of working with what the patients would have desired. In summary, the topic and justification of proceeding with medical intervention however disregarding the patient’s decision, proves that autonomy could be respectfully countered.

This is consonant in ongoing with medicine’s obligation to do simply no harm’, do good’ and serve ideal of the sufferer. Evaluation The required outcome is that this affected person receives the care and intervention that your woman needed with time to prevent low damage to her body as a result altering her quality of life. With all the input of the chaplain, her husband, the advocate and careful conversation with this patient, the person admits that she wanted the best treatment. She allows the present for monetary assistance and receives the correct intervention. The nurse and medical workers express fulfillment in saving her your life (maleficent), Her husband is elated and he as well signs a professional directive pertaining to himself.

It seemed difficult to convince the patient at first but once the suggestion for financial aid and the Chaplain was received, the patient complied with all additional recommendations. Referrals Lynch, They would. F., Mathes, M., Sawicki, N. And., (2008). Compliance With Enhance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives.

The Journal Of Legal Remedies, 29: 133178. Retrieved coming from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.proxy.medlib.iupui.edu/pubmed/18569439 Pesut, B. (2009). Incorporating patients’ spirituality in care applying Gadow’s ethical framework.

Nurs Ethics. 2009 Jul; 16(4): 418-28. Retrieved from http://nej.sagepub.com.proxy.medlib.iupui.edu/content/16/4/418.long WebMD, (2007). Retrieved Nov 26, 2012, from http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/disseminated-intravascular-coagulation-dic-topic-overview Whitney, H. N., McCullough, B. D. (2007). Physicians’ Silent Decisions: Because Individual Autonomy Would not Always Come First.

The American Journal of Bioethics, 7(7): 3338, 2007. Retrieved via http://mcr.sagepub.com.proxy.medlib.iupui.edu/content/early/2012/10/31/1077558712461952.long