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Ethical and Legal Issues Case Study
The ethical issues are evident in the case study in the decisions considered by the physician and the nurses. First is to either to continue with the life support process or to terminate the procedure. The other ethical issue is for the nurses as to whether to follow the directives of the physician and terminate the life support process or ignore the directive and keep the patient alive. However, the dilemma is further complicated by the physician’s certainty of the death of the patient because of the end-stage cardiac disease and the arrest. There is another ethical issue in regard to the adherence of the decision by patient’s daughters to withdraw life support, even when the process has already started.
Based on the nursing code of ethics, nurses have three main responsibilities in such a case. One of the responsibilities is to make professional decisions to maintain the health and life of the patient (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2008). While in this case, they can do little, they have a responsibility to make the best decision for the patient’s life. However, nurses have the surrogate role of adhering to the directions of the physician and the professional decisions made by the doctor (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2008). Nurses also have a responsibility to fulfill the decision of the patient’s daughters. This, however, contradicts with the first responsibility because the patient is likely to die if the life support process is terminated.
The implementation of the advance directives was adhered to, but ethical issues place the nurses into a dilemma because of a contrary directive. This leads to possible legal implications of whichever decision made by the nurses, who play the surrogate role. The physician knows the legal implications of terminating the life support process, and assumes the responsibility. This gives the physician full assumption of the legal implications of the decision and nurses’ actions.
References
Rosdahl, C.B., & Kowalski, M.T. (2008). Textbook of Basic Nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins