Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients

Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients
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Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients
Members of the nursing profession are faced with the ultimate obligation of fostering the indispensable morals of preserving life and minimizing suffering on the side of their clients. As a consequence, Ganz, Wagner, and Toren (2015, p.43) reveal that these professionals need to uphold all processes aimed at fostering the codes of confidentiality, rectitude, and colleagueship when undertaking their day-to-day career activities. However, key players in the nursing profession such as Nightingale put a lot of emphasis on the potency of caregivers to develop and nurture obedience and servitude as essential traits in their areas of practice exposes them to multiple dilemmas. Kim, Han, and Kim (2015, p.468) reveal that dealing with patients suffering from dementia is one of the medical fields of practice in which ethical dilemmas are inevitable. According to Dwarswaard and van de Bovenkamp (2015, p.1132), patients with dementia are faced with difficulties in their abilities to make sound decisions concerning issues such as their levels of efficacy to undertake treatments. On the other hand, De Vries, and Plaskota (2017 p.1) explain that the ethical behavior of any medical practitioner is determined by an array of factors. As a consequence of what one nurse considers being ethical could be different from what the other caregiver upholds when attending to a certain distinct situation from another point of view. Justice, respect for patient autonomy, non-maleficence and the inherent duty to act with beneficence are considered by Smebye, Kirkevold and Engedal (2015 p.21) as the four major ethical issues that need to be upheld by nurses when undertaking their career. The current study seeks to undertake a critical analysis of the ethical dilemmas faced by practicing nurses when dealing with patients suffering from dementia.
Scenario Description
Mr. Y is a 62-year-old patient of Mexican origin. He is married to Mrs. Y and has two sons working as businessmen. Y was taken through multiple clinical analyses and was diagnosed with dementia. Based on the medical analyses undertaken, it was evident that the patient’s dementia was as a result of macular degeneration. Patient Y depicted symptoms such as a gradual change in the levels of the eminence of his vision as he complained of seeing distorted lines when reading, the appearance of dark and blurry areas at the center of his vision and sudden changes in his perception of colors. The aforementioned symptomatic expressions acted as proof of the presence of macular degeneration. On the other hand, the patient's physical motion is hindered. As a consequence, patient Y is forced to mobilize with the help of a Zimmer frame. Considering the minimal population of practitioners, patient Y was assigned a Posey alarm that played an essential role in alerting the assigned nurse whenever he stood up.
Autonomy
According to Krautscheid (2017 p.56), the significance of the moral principle of autonomy in nursing practice dates back to the years of establishment of the Helsinki declaration and the Nuremberg codes of ethics. The International Medical Association upholds the belief that patients must be allowed to exercise the rights and freedoms of being acquainted with the necessary medical data as well as being given the opportunity to select the treatment procedures that suit their preferences. Hopia, Lottes, and Kanne (2016 p.659) reveal that the ethical principle of autonomy underpins nurses to ensure that they avail their patients with accurate information concerning the treatment options available in their institutions and allow them (patients) to make free and non-coerced decisions to undertake the therapeutic interventions. According to Fischer Grönlund et al. (2015 p.712), nurses are faced with the ultimate role of ensuring that their clients are informed as adequately as possible on issues such as the benefits of the therapies under consideration as well as the risks associated with these interventions.
While nurses are faced with the obligation of ensuring that the autonomy of their clients is respected, there are tendencies that these caregivers may be faced with situations and challenges that live them with no option but to invade this essential need. However, Bollig, Schmidt, Rosland, and Heller (2015 p.812) uphold that caregivers must ensure that the autonomy of their clients is respected by availing detailed information concerning the therapeutic procedures that need to be undertaken while encouraging them to play an active role in the decision-making procedures put in place. When dealing with clients suffering from dementia such as patient Y, caregivers face challenges that may arise from the mental complications associated with this disease. For instance, patient Y was highly incapable of engaging in the decision-making process due to the visual impairments he experienced. In my position as the nurse assigned to this patient, I was faced with the obligation of reading the physician’s recommendations at a louder tone. In other instances, I had to involve the patient’s wife. In other instances, Y asked me to figure out what was said by the physician in charge. In this case, I faced multiple challenges in striking a balance of “how much information was ethically adequate” to be revealed.
Beneficence
Beneficence is described by Kim, Han, and Kim (2015, p.468) as a principle of nursing ethics that underpins caregivers to ensure that their patients attain the highest degrees of wellness. According to Dwarswaard and van de Bovenkamp (2015, p.1132), nurses embrace beneficence by ensuring that their professional activities do not expose their clients to maltreatments through adopting minimizing the possibilities of inflicting harm on...