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Topic:
Dilema essay. How do you ethically define what is happening in this situation?
Essay Instructions:
Hi,
The ethical dilemma paper will be 2-3 pages in length following APA format essay. At least three references are required to support your paper.
1/ the senario I had already choose and answered. Please rivise and put it in APA essay format plus three references to suport the paper.
2/ I will provide 3 references----------
Ethical Scenario #1 (patient)
You are a new grad of six months working the night shift on a small cancer unit. There are two RNs on this unit and you are the more senior. Mr. V has been in and out of this unit several times over the last few months. He has liver cancer and has gone through several episodes of chemotherapy. His last admission, however, was for an unsuccessful suicide attempt. At the time, you learned that he had made several such attempts in the last few weeks.
Mr. V recently joined the hospice program. His current admission is for pain control, and the orders are to start a morphine drip to be titrated for pain. The only set parameters are to decrease the drip for respirations less than 4 per minute. Mr. V requests that the drip be increased several times during your shift. Even though he does not appear to be in any discomfort, you accept his assessment and increase the drip. His wife has been staying with him since his admission. On a routine check, you note that his respirations are now 4 per minute and he is unarousable. You turn off the drip, telling the wife that you will turn it back on if he arouses at all or shows signs of being in pain but that his respirations are dangerously low. After about 10 more minutes, Mr. V wakes up and is furious with you, accusing you of bringing him back from death. “I have a do-not-resuscitate order; you are supposed to let me die.” You reply that you did not bring him back ; you stopped pushing him toward death.
1. How do you ethically define what is happening in this situation?
2. If you had kept the morphine turned on, would you be letting him die or causing him to die? Is there a difference? How do you justify your actions?
3. What is at stake in this situation?
Essay Sample Content Preview:
 Dilemma Essay
October 12, 2011
Q. How do you ethically define what is happening in this situation?
Ethically, you are saving a person from taking his life. Death is a very difficult aspect of life and especially for those who are willing to throw themselves amidst it when they have a choice to curb it which is why you need to be careful when making choices in these matters. Here you already have decided to make Mr. V continue to live as much as possible and even though, he does not appreciate that but for you to simply comply with his wishes is like committing a murder and that`s ethically and legally wrong.
Moreover, you have to follow the guidelines and orders that are put before you. Despite Mr. V wishes to die now, you can only legally and justifiably give him medications as per orders (Sorta-Bilajac 2011). You can use your communication skills to try to make this clear to him and his wife. It would be against the law to administer more medication than ordered or not properly follow the guidelines and orders set forth. You can try to give him the comfort or resort to other therapeutic measures like talking to him, trying to understand where he`s coming from, show him empathy but at the same time give him hope. That`s what needed - hope and a sensitive attitude. You need to talk to him to show that taking his life is not the solution to the problem, but instead he needs to savor as much of the life he has left. You also need to talk to his wife to be as supportive as she can be right now. Support and love is the key to make a person feel he is needed in his life. Once he starts seeing how much his life matters to others he will try to live it.
Therapeutic communication is the key to help Mr. V and yourself get through this difficult time. You have to be able to communicate your needs as well as helping your patient die in a respectful and humane manner.
Q If you had kept the morphine turned on, would you be letting him die or causing him to die? Is there a difference? How do you justify your actions?
If you kept the morphine turned on then you would have been causing him to die. Lettin...
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