Informed Consent and lack of patient understanding
Informed Consent and lack of patient understanding
Assignment Instructions: 1. Describe the ethical issue/dilemma of informed consent and lack of patient understanding that impacts the nursing profession as a whole or one that you have encountered in your own practice.
2. Discuss the background and significance of the issue/dilemma using current nursing literature (research, scholarly articles) from peer reviewed nursing journals for support. You may also use or governmental publications that are relevant to your issue such as Civil Rights Law or Supreme Court Decisions.
3. Analyze opposing viewpoints or dimensions of your ethical issue/dilemma using “The Four Topics Approach (Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade, 2010) listed below.
MEDICAL INDICATIONS examines the principles of Beneficence and Nonmaleficence and asks such questions as: What is the patient’s medical problem? What are the goals of the treatment? What are the probabilities of success with various options?
QUALITY OF LIFE examines the principles of Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, and Respect for Autonomy, and asks such questions as: What are the prospects, with or without treatment, for a return to normal life, and what physical, mental, and social deficits might the patient experience even if the treatment succeeds?
PATIENT PREFERENCES examines the principle of Respect for Autonomy and asks such questions as: Has the patient been informed of the benefits and risks, has he or she understood this information, and given consent?
CONTEXTUAL FEATURES examines the principles of Justice and Fairness and asks such questions as: Are there professional, interprofessional, or business interests that might create conflicts of interest in the clinical treatment of the patient? Are there religious or legal issues that might affect the clinical decision?
*Each dimension above should be addressed thoughtfully in its own section/paragraph(s). Some of the issues you think of or find in the literature may not be directly related to direct patient situations in a hospital. If your issue or dilemma is not directly related to a patient treatment such as staffing ratios, Whistle blowing, Nurse’s not being able to unionize in Texas, or not allowing nurse practitioners to provide contraceptive information in Catholic hospitals, how might these impact nurses or patients
4. Propose an ethical solution to the issue/dilemma you described that would be most ethical of any available options? b. If your solution is not supported or addressed be current laws, regulations, or best practices, recommendation how that the law should be changed or a new one developed. How might a nurse or nursing organization be able to facilitate change?
5. Format must be in APA format. References (at least 5 nursing scholarly journals that are current with in the last 5 years) Citations in text and references.
Since this assignment is to explore more about ethical dilemmas that exist in healthcare and not directly procedure, practice, or skills related, it is not imperative for the article or reference support to be from a nursing journal or an article written by a nurse(s) about nurse directed research.
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