• Social justice
• Moral courage, distress, and resilience
• End-of-life issues
• Caregiving
• Bioethics

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

• Think about ethical situations you have experienced in practice.
• Write a summary of your experiences, and explain how the situation was resolved or ended.

Be constructive and professional in your responses.

This is from another classmate that I need to respond to in a minimum of 100 words:

In the hospital I currently work in i face moral issues daily. I recently had a diabetic patient that had a stage 4 pressure ulcer on his lower leg. Due to be psychotic he was refusing to each or take any medications, which caused the wound to not heal properly. Due to a fever and foul smell coming from the leg the facility i work in decided he needed to be sent to the ER. As the RN i was informed that I needed to go with him because of his aggressive behavior medication may need to be administered. Once we arrived at the hospital we were informed that the MD on call made the decision that the leg needed to be amputated. I made the call to facility i work in and they called his daughter to let her know what was happening. At this time the patient was admitted to the hospital to start IV antibiotics. The daughter made the decision that she did not want the leg amputated. Myself, the MD on call and all the nursing staff informed her of the consequences if the leg did not get amputated. She continued to refused, I was beside myself. I tried everything to explain to her that she was making a horrible decision. I felt terrible i knew in my heart that if this patient did not have this procedure that he would die. We attempted to gain emergency guardianship of him through the court so that our medical staff could make the decision for him, however the court decided that since the daughter was POA she was the one making the decisions. There was nothing that we could do, we all attempted once more to try and convince her, she still refused. The patient was placed on palliative care and sent to a nursing home where he soon passed. Per the American Nurses Association, “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient.” (ANA, 2001, p. 12). This was my attempt to advocate for this patient, striving for what would have been a resolution to his suffering and allow him to live “a better life”. As i sat back and thought about his case I did disagree with the daughter i thought this would allow him to live a better life, but was that true. Ultimately would he live a better life without a leg, in my head the answer was yes but to him not having a leg and severe mental issues could possibly make his situation worse. From then on I always stop and think, am I making the best decision for my patient or am I putting my beliefs ahead of theirs. Looking at the glass differently has made me a better nurse I believe.

In the hospital I currently work in i face moral issues daily. I recently had a diabetic patient that had a stage 4 pressure ulcer on his lower leg. Due to be psychotic he was refusing to each or take any medications, which caused the wound to not heal properly. Due to a fever and foul smell coming from the leg the facility i work in decided he needed to be sent to the ER. As the RN i was informed that I needed to go with him because of his aggressive behavior medication may need to be administered. Once we arrived at the hospital we were informed that the MD on call made the decision that the leg needed to be amputated. I made the call to facility i work in and they called his daughter to let her know what was happening. At this time the patient was admitted to the hospital to start IV antibiotics. The daughter made the decision that she did not want the leg amputated. Myself, the MD on call and all the nursing staff informed her of the consequences if the leg did not get amputated. She continued to refused, I was beside myself. I tried everything to explain to her that she was making a horrible decision. I felt terrible i knew in my heart that if this patient did not have this procedure that he would die. We attempted to gain emergency guardianship of him through the court so that our medical staff could make the decision for him, however the court decided that since the daughter was POA she was the one making the decisions. There was nothing that we could do, we all attempted once more to try and convince her, she still refused. The patient was placed on palliative care and sent to a nursing home where he soon passed. Per the American Nurses Association, “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient.” (ANA, 2001, p. 12). This was my attempt to advocate for this patient, striving for what would have been a resolution to his suffering and allow him to live “a better life”. As i sat back and thought about his case I did disagree with the daughter i thought this would allow him to live a better life, but was that true. Ultimately would he live a better life without a leg, in my head the answer was yes but to him not having a leg and severe mental issues could possibly make his situation worse. From then on I always stop and think, am I making the best decision for my patient or am I putting my beliefs ahead of theirs. Looking at the glass differently has made me a better nurse I believe.

American Nurses Association, Center for Ethics and Human Rights: http://www.nursingworld.org/DocumentVault/Headline…