Assignment #4: Health care case analysis HMGT 372 6382 Legal and Ethical Issues in Health, Exams of Nursing

Download Assignment #4: Health care case analysis HMGT 372 6382 Legal and Ethical Issues in Health and more Exams Nursing in PDF only on Docsity! RUNNING HEAD: Health care case analysis 1 Assignment #4: Health care case analysis HMGT 372 6382 Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Care (2185) By Kiria Akwo Summer 2018 RUNNING HEAD: Health care case analysis 2 The scenario presented for this assignment is one that healthcare providers and family members are faced with daily and while the decision can be a difficult one to make, family members have to make this decision in order for healthcare providers to continue with care as appropriate. In this scenario, a 72-year-old woman was diagnosed with cerebral hemorrhage which left her with severe brain damage and ventilator dependent. The patient and her husband had drawn a living will a year prior when she was of sound mind. Three legal/ethical issues The three legal/ethical in the scenario include issues surrounding informed consent, surrogate decision makers and the law pertaining to advanced directives specifically living wills. Discussion of Three Legal/Ethical Issues. Legal/Ethical Issue 1: Informed Consent Informed consent is both a lawful and ethical standard of care for the protection of both the patient and the provider. It ensures that prior to healthcare delivery, a health care provider explains treatment plan and alternative plans including non-treatment and potential outcomes related to treatment plans (Brock and Mastroianni, 2013). Also, healthcare providers are required to provide such information in a way that is easily understood by the patient. Consequently, before a health care provider delivers care, ethical and legal standards require that the patient provides informed consent. If the patient is unable to provide informed consent as is the case in the scenario, then for treatments, a legally authorized surrogate decision-maker may do so (Brock and Mastroianni, 2013. In this scenario, the 72-year-old patient is unable to provide consent, her husband is the assigned surrogate decision maker. From a clinical ethics point of view, informed consent is a communication process, and should not simply be treated as a RUNNING HEAD: Health care case analysis 5 and that respect and compassion for all others-especially the vulnerable-are requirements of such reasoning (Velasquez et al. 2015). The patient in this scenario will be considered vulnerable because she cannot make her healthcare needs known. Healthcare providers have the obligation to provide all necessary information as concerns the patient’s health and treatment plan including alternative treatments, expected outcomes and potential side effects of treatment. This approach also calls attention to the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone (Velasquez et al. 2015). Giving patients the opportunity to provide informed consent is safeguarding their welfare. I will handle informed concern in this scenario by giving the patient’s husband all the information that he will need to make an informed choice. Handling of Legal/Ethical Issue #2: Surrogate decision maker In the scenario, the husband is the surrogate decision maker. Though he is not respecting the wishes of the patient per her living will, he still deserves to be treated with respect. He has been forced to make a decision that no one ever wants to make. I will use the virtue approach here because healthcare providers have to treat the entire family especially in situations like this. Using compassion and patience can offer a great deal of comfort and courage in their decision-making process. The virtue approach insists that ethical actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of our humanity. These virtues are dispositions and habits that enable us to act according to the highest potential of our character (Velasquez et al. 2015). Handling of Legal/Ethical Issue #3: Advanced directive (living will) Advanced directives ensure that patients care wishes are respected at a time when they are unable to speak for themselves. It is our duty as healthcare providers to respect these RUNNING HEAD: Health care case analysis 6 wishes regardless of our believes, culture or choices. In respecting patient’s wishes we continue to respect their autonomy in healthcare. The rights approach explains that the ethical action is the one that best protects and respects the moral rights of those affected (Velasquez et al. 2015).. This approach starts from the belief that humans have a dignity based on their human nature per se or on their ability to choose freely what they do with their lives. Based on such dignity, they have a right to be treated as ends and not merely as means to other ends. In the scenario the patient’s living specified that the patient did not want ventilator support or other artificial life support in the event of a permanent unconscious condition or terminal condition. Healthcare providers have the responsibility to provide honest information to patients and designated family members, friends or someone elected by the court for informed decision making in relation to healthcare. Healthcare providers are sometimes faced with ethical/legal issues that could potentially affect the quality of care a patient receives and sometimes designated family members are challenged with making life or death decisions for their family member. Established ethical approaches to these challenges can inspire trust in the healthcare system and courage to make difficult decisions. RUNNING HEAD: Health care case analysis 7 References Brock, L. V., & Mastroianni, A. (2013, January 22). Clinical Ethics and Law. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/law.html Velasquez, M., Moberg, D., Meyer, M. J., Shanks, T., McLean, M., DeCosse, D., . . . Hanson, K. O. (2015, August 1). A Framework for Ethical Decision Making. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/a- framework- for-ethical-decision-making/