There are three ethical issues in older adult which consist of informed, guard against harm and protect privacy (PSYC 401: Novak, 2011, Theories and Method, pg. 43)
There are four medical ethics which consist of Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence and Justice (PSYC 426: Paul Bennett, personal communication, 02/22/14)
Autonomy is an older adult to live their life by being their own person (PSYC 426, Paul H. Bennett, personal communication, 02/26/14). In addition, an older adult highly values the virtue of autonomy in their life (PSYC 402: Cox, 2011, Society fears the aging process, p.34). An older adult with the most resources have the capacity of increasing growth, competence, hope, insight most satisfied and control to drive a car. If the older adult feels they have lack of individual control then they become distress, depression, lowered motivation, lessened well-being and life satisfaction.
Please present several issues of ethical concern with aging (i.e., biological, psychological, social, and cultural perspectives) with societal responses to a growing aging population, and explain solutions to be done to better address these concerns.
Bioethics is a biological issue that is an ethically concern with aging. Bioethics is in the health and life
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Elder abuse consists of physical abuse, neglect of food or shelter or abandonment (PSYC 426: Holstein & Waymack, 2011). American older adults are being abuse by their caregiver as well staff in a nursing home. An example of a protective service about elder abuse was stated on the National Council on Aging to help prevent elder abuse in the aging population through the Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act of 2013. However, as the older adult population continues to live longer, there will be a problem with elder abuse and neglect (PSYC 426: Stone,
Some of these cases of abuse are done in elderly homes by family members. In the first section of the article, the authors discuss the definition of elder abuse. The authors began with the most common types of elder abuse, which are physical and neglect. Elder abuse is the intentional use of physical force that results in acute or chronic illness, bodily injury, physical pain, functional impairment, distress, or death (Choi NG & Mayer J. In summary, the rhetorical analysis essay discusses how elder abuse and neglect affect the victims physically, emotionally, and professionally.
Assisted Living Facilities abuse is a frequently occurring problem in our society (Hamilton). There are diverse categories of abuse that transpire in Assisted Living Facilities which are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment, and financial abuse. Samples of physical abuse would be hitting or beating the elders with an object or their hand, force feeding them or pulling their hands. Sexual abuse is the Assisted Living Facility employees having sexual acts with non-consenting patients. Emotional abuse is the employees saying things verbally to torment the patient. Neglect would be the employee does not take care of the patients such as providing hygiene. Abandonment occurs when leaving patients to fend for themselves. Financial abuse is when the patient’s family pays for the services that were not taken care of. “Elder abuse is fast becoming one of the uppermost law enforcement tasks of the next century, “said Paul Hodge who investigates crime against the elderly (Gonzalez). Since abuse occurs throughout assisted living facilities, state and federal governments should establish a type of punishment such as sending for employees to prison, ways to prevent abusing elderly’s is by inspecting employees ' criminal records, qualified staff, reporting injuries, having surveillance of the areas that do not affect patients privacy, promoting continuous family visits, and shortage of staffing.
Elder Abuse is defined as any activity performed by an individual whereby these actions cause suffering of the older adult, intentionally or not (Touhy, Jett, Boscart & McCleary, 2012, p. 378). Unfortunately, the incidents of elder abuse continue to rise with the increasing number of people entering older adulthood. It is interesting to note that although elder abuse is highly under reported its occurrence increased three fold over a ten-year period (Friese & Collopy, 2010, p. 61). Certainly, it is a nurse’s duty to provide holistic care to his or her patients, which must include protection from abuse. Elder abuse can take on many forms including physical, emotional, sexual, neglect and financial. It is important to note that for the purposes of this paper, this writer will focus solely on financial abuse. When one considers the definition of financial abuse, it is deemed to be a misuse of another individual’s finances for ones own monetary gain. Thus, this type of abuse has become the most common and fastest growing form of all. As such, it is important for all nurses to understand financial abuse and who is at risk, how it presents, and what can be done to prevent it in order to protect the elderly.
Principles of Biomedical Ethics, by Tom Beauchamp and James F. Childress, has for many critics in medical ethics exemplified the worse sins of "principlism." From its first edition, the authors have argued for the importance and usefulness of general principles for justifying ethical judgments about policies and cases in medical ethics. The organization of their book reflects this conviction, dividing discussion of particular ethical problems under the rubrics of the key ethical principles which the authors believe should govern our moral judgments: principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice.
Garrett, Thomas, Baillie, Harold, and Garrett, Rosellen. Health Care Ethics; Principles and Problems. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall, 2001.
In the medical field, the workers are highly trained to be able to make a distinction between what is right and what is wrong. Elder abuse is becoming a serious issue in the health environment. As defined in the website, MedicineNet.com, elder abuse is: “the physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of an elderly person, usually one who is disabled or frail”. The older population consists of people over sixty-five years old. They are very fragile and sometimes they are forgotten or abused. The elderly can be victims of mistreatment in nursing homes, hospitals, or even in their own house. Nursing is the act of promoting health for others, and of providing care and security with the skills nurses have acquired. However, those who are nursing can also harm, or hurt people by advising them. Elder abuse can take many forms such as financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse.
Life seems to get busier and more hectic as each generation passes. As generations continue to age, a common dilemma arises that must be resolved: whether or not to put their aging loved ones into a nursing home. Nursing homes have become excessively more popular as the elderly continue to have longer life expectancies. Nursing homes at first were only for those who were poor and had no family to care for them, but now has become an option for families who simply cannot sacrifice the time and effort to care for their elderly loved ones. Morality and ethics is a huge factor in the difficult decision, which many moral factors are considered. In order to analyze how to effectively decide whether or not to put an elder in a nursing home, two theories
Ethical principles in healthcare are significant to the building blocks of mortality. The principles are beneficence, autonomy, justice, and nonmaleficence. Although these principles can be certainly followed they can also be disregarded. Beneficence is a theory that assures each procedure given is entirely beneficial to that patient to help them advance within their own good. For example, There was a young girl, the age of 17. She had been being treated at a small private practice since she was born. She was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and was only given a few more years to live. Her doctors at the private practice who had been seeing her for years were very attached to her and wanted to grant this dying girl her every wish. They promised
Nursing Home Abuse With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored, and deprived of social contact and stimulation.
Of nursing home staff interviewed in 2004, nearly 40% admitted to committing at least one psychologically abusive act toward a resident and 10% admitted to physically abusing a resident in the preceding year.[1] Not only are nursing home residents at risk of being abused by their caretakers but they are also at risk of being restrained, which may lead to a form of abuse. With five percent of the elderly population, or one to two million instances of elder abuse occurring yearly there is no doubt that elder abuse deserves serious consideration.[2]
In this diverse society we are confronted everyday with so many ethical choices in provision of healthcare for individuals. It becomes very difficult to find a guideline that would include a border perspective which might include individual’s beliefs and preference across the world. Due to these controversies, the four principles in biomedical ethic which includes autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice help us understand and explain which medical practices are ethical and acceptable. These principles are not only used to protect the rights of a patient but also the physician from being violated.
Health IT provides the protection of patients’ privacy, confidentiality, and allocating resources in a fair way across programs, services, and patients. Health IT makes available information from the health record and from many authoritative sources that informs patients and clinicians to a point that they are collaborators in the quest to improve the health of the patient longitudinally. That is, from cradle to grave. Ethical practices in end of life care or palliative care is another area where health IT can provide information to clinicians and patience to address patient issues near the end of life. This would include the options of choosing facilities for independent living, or assisted living and/or nursing care facilities. Health IT can assist patients to reenter the work force and support a valuable aspect of providing a living for those disabled or with diseases that may have reduced or eliminated their ability to secure gainful employment. Health IT is effective in teaching clinicians about how to behave with certain patient populations (Fox, Crigger, Bottrell, & Bauck, n.d., p.
Many seniors around the world are being abused and harmed in some substantial way often by people who are directly responsible for their care (Robinson, 2016). Neglect of all forms causes harm to a patients overall well-being. Neglect happens in 60% of people and physical abuse happens to 15% of people (Franklin, 2013). There are three different types of neglect that can happen especially to the elderly. The three types of neglect are mental, emotional and physical neglect. Mental neglect, is basically ignoring or just not showing care or love for the patient. Emotional neglect is not only ignoring, but isolating the patient from others. Physical neglect which is causing physical injury to the body from rough handleing or non-supervision. Neglect is damaging not only to a body but also to the mind and over all
Older adults are a very knowledgeable population and have had a lot of life experiences. As people age, things start to change physically, mentally, and socially. It’s important to understand the process of aging, so that older adults can be taken care of properly. I interviewed P.R. who is a 71-year-old male that lives alone in his home. P.R. is a retired coal miner, and is currently living off his social security and savings. He lives close to both his daughter and son, who frequently help him out with things that are needed. P.R. was able to give me a lot of insight about specific challenges that he has experienced in his life that is associated with aging. I will be discussing challenges that P.R experienced physically, mentally,
Health care providers are faced with bioethical issues every day when caring for a wide variety of patients. Bioethical principles are outlined in order to help these professionals provide the best possible care for their clients. The first principle focuses on the autonomy of individuals. This is the foundation of “informed consent” that is required before performing any medical care on a patient. The patient must completely understand the benefits and risks associated with any medical acts and make their own decision. The second principle states that no intentional harm or injury to the patient can result from the medical decision. This principle of nonmaleficence helps set standards of care to prevent wrongdoing. Beneficence is the third bioethical principle that states that it is the responsibility of the health care provider to benefit the patient. The fourth bioethical principle refers to justice and that each patient is treated with fairness. Every patient is entitled to impartial medical care to ensure the appropriate distribution of goods and services (McCormick, 2013). These bioethical principles help guide health care professionals when making difficult decisions related to controversial topics and practices.