Question

Today's health care environment gives nurses many reasons to be conflicted. Genetic testing, abortion, and end of life care are just some of the areas in which nurses may face ethical dilemmas. Consider how you feel about the following issues:

v Respecting the wishes of a suffering client that he is permitted to die with dignity,

v Respecting the health surrogate's wishes regarding termination of life support,

v Or even observing another nurse take two tablets of oxycodone as ordered but keeping one for herself.

Then give an example of an ethical dilemma you may have confronted in your own clinical experience or workplace. How did you come to the decision you made? What feelings did you experience while coming to that choice? (If you have not yet faced an ethical dilemma, research one and comment on it, answering the same questions.)

Answer 1

A job of nurse is not only confined to taking care of the patient,it also includes proper medication administration as well as good behaviour towards patients. But sometimes it becomes a great dilemma for nurse to counter the patient wish for permission to die or any such kind of act which may hurt the moral and emotional values of the nurse. Being a nurse, it's not at all possible to allow any patient to die with their own wish because it's again the rules of the nurse. Nurse could not do this to anyone as they are here to take care of the people and not to let them die. In such cases, nurse should encourage the patient to live or talk about the positivity of life.

Sometimes people with us,those co-workers , some of them are so rude to the patient or some don't behave properly with the patient. Even many of them keep some medicine along with them and no proper medication is given to the patient. These are so much common now adays that being a nurse it's difficult to believe that from us they do it so. I still remember last month, one of the patient who got burnt on his face and some of the areas on hand was totally despair. She didn't want to live her life as she was much concern about her looks and marriage problems faced by her parents. She wanted to end her life and was not ready to take any kind of medicine. In this situation, the only hope was to encourage her about the beautiful life to live, to feel the love of her parents. The need of her parents that she only can fulfill. For many consecutive days I tried my best to convince her,encourage and finally after a week she was full of life.

Being a nurse it's our ethical responsibility to tackle with these kind of problem very calmly and quick decision should not be made.