NURS1006 Law And Ethics For Professional Practice
Question:
Post 1:
- Abortion can be lawful if performed on order to protect health of a woman from danger, this health can extend to mental health before and after the baby is born.
- Individual autonomy plays a major role over both euthanasia and abortion, trying to impower a person to their own rights (details of time and place deter this).
- By law it is the Nurses role to support the patient despite personal morals and opinions and to first do no harm as the nurse’s priority is the safety and wellbeing of their patient only.
The chapter of abortion and euthanasia appealed to me as I work in aged care where there are many palliative patients. It is seeing these patients go through their own personal turmoil both mentally and physically losing all forms of dignity that leads me to question the ethics of life and their families. I question whether how soon is too soon to prepare an advance care directive? To ensure right of the patient are respected before they are lost in illness and feelings of pain. I also question whether morphine may be considered a form of involuntary euthanasia? As I have experienced doctors hold off morphine treatment for this reason though that person is not going to get any better therefore hastening their death.
My resource to support and amplify the theme of this chapter was originally found after reading about ‘Aktion T4’ which was a notion made by the Nazis in World war two where they gathered all disabled, retarded and mentally ill patients from all asylums and euthanized them involuntarily to them or their families. The article also amplifies feelings of abortions in the case of assisting in pregnancy and avoiding giving birth to more disabled or deformed babies.
The article provides an informative view of two films displaying the ethical problems of the sterilisation of the race in Nazi Germany and the view of abortion of a medically damaged foetus and voluntary euthanasia.
Post 2:
Power can be employed in a nurse-patient relationship by the nurse giving and withholding information – the lack of knowledge of a patient creates a dependency on the nurse.
A nurse’s trustworthiness does not mean simply being friendly – being trustworthy can also result in arguing against a patient’s requests if they are not in the patient’s interests.
Nurses are not obliged to partake in an activity that may result in harm to the patient, but in order to build trust should explain in detail why they can’t and won’t do it.
I would like to reflect on an experience I had in hospital recently for an operation where I had a number of what I would call good nurses, and one great nurse. This one nurse basically told me about everything that was happening, not just with what she was doing (which she also did quite well), but also outside of my room. There was one patient who was extremely irritable and screaming at the nurses all through the night, and this nurse came around to every patient, explained what was happening and apologised for the noise and keeping us awake. When I complained about the pain I was experiencing, she not only listened and empathised but took the time to explain what was happening and why I was feeling it. When she left, she would give a roundabout time of when she would return and she stuck to it.
All of this developed trust that I appreciated as a patient, and while I didn’t necessarily feel bad with the other nurses, I felt better and safer in her care when she was on shift.
I found an interesting article, Trust in nurse-patient relationships: A literature review, that goes further in-depth about the importance and value of trust in the nurse-patient relationship and influencing factors.
Answer:
Euthanasia and Abortion
Post 1 Reply
Lawful abortion is encouraged because it helps save the lives of women with the conditions instead of losing both mother and child in the pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. Although there exist no psychiatric conditions that may lead to the abortion act, it helps improve the psychiatric condition of the woman even if she’s not mentally ill. Recent studies have found out the existence of many complications resulting from abortion (Wijdicks and Karenberg, 2016). These include infertility and P.I.D. these diseases have a mental impact on the health of the mothers who abort. Majority of recorded abortions done are mostly due to mental issues. Therapeutic abortion cannot be used to justify the unstable psychological trauma endured by the women who aborted. Generally, abortion is not harmful to a woman’s state of mind. Factors leading to mental instability after an abortion include the use of abortion as treatment and repeated abortions.
Individual autonomy allows one to live their life however they please by doing whatever they want. The practice of Euthanasia (mercy killing) and abortion should not be justified by this. Although one is empowered to what they like, the acts are still murder, punishable by law, abuse of religious and moral ethics and sin. This proves how limited personal autonomy is in the case of abortion and euthanasia.
Although the major role of a nurse is to support the patient, the safety of a patient is paramount. The personal and moral opinions of patients are to be considered most especially if the patient desires to die to immense pain or kill a growing fetus abortion (Wijdicks and Karenberg, 2016). The use of morphine can be considered involuntary euthanasia. This is because it hastens death through the reduction of pain.
Post 2 Reply
As identified in the patient’s charter, a partnership between the patient and nurse during treatment is necessary. Empowerment of patients through the sharing of information brews trust between the two parties. Suggested reasons why nurses aren’t as successful as expected in the empowerment process include impounding risks and expectancy on the part of the patient (Dinc & Gastmans, 2013). The good nurse ensured everything was open including what was happening to the patient in particular and around the patient. She went an extra mile of honouring her time and doing rounds on individual patients.
Trustworthiness covers a wide scope in relation to patient nurse partnership. A trustworthy nurse is able to tell a patient about risks associated with certain procedures and the benefits of the same procedures. In an aim to build trust a nurse is also able to empower a patient to make proper decisions after analyzing of both sides of the coin (Dinc & Gastmans, 2013). Also, the nurses are able to share their powers of decision-making through the sharing of information and general trust. In the case above, the patient felt safe with the good nurse due to the sense of trust, empathy and caring nature she exuded through the sharing of information.
Patients may want to undergo clinically risky procedures. A nurse’s duty includes educating the patient about the fatalities of undertaking such procedures. This is done with an aim of discouraging such procedures. If a patient persists, the nurse is supposed to kindly resist stating the procedure would endanger the life of the patient while her job is to safeguard it.
Reference:
Wijdicks, E.F. and Karenberg, A., 2016. Mercy killing in neurology The beginnings of
neurology on screen (II). Neurology, 87(12), pp.1289-1292.
Dinc, L & Gastmans, C 2013, ‘Trust in nurse-patient relationships: a literature review’, Nursing
Ethics, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 501-516.
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