Dementia Ethical Issues

Introduction

Symptom management of Dementia at end of life is often sub-optimal, although symptom burdens may be similar to cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or advanced heart failure. Dementia may exist with several co-morbid conditions, and death may occur from various causes (Jones et al., 2015). Dementia is a complex disease that the health profession is learning more and more about. It is complex due to the fact that is does not affect everyone the same way, making it hard to treat. Dementia is a disease that has no cure, but is also not treated as a terminal illness. Ethical issues can arise when caring for people with dementia. Nurses can have a hard time knowing what their ethical responsibilities are. This paper

They receive less than optimal pain control, have fewer advanced care directives, undergo burdensome interventions and receive less hospice care than other patients with end of life conditions. Cessation of medications in a patient with advanced dementia is important for the potential to improve quality of life, and may reduce the burden on the patient. When a patient is nearing the end stages of life they have a lot of medications to sustain their medical and psychological needs. End of life care in patients with severe dementia raises not only clinical issues, but also difficult ethical considerations for physicians in relation to withholding or withdrawing treatment (Parson et all 2010 pg11). This can be a difficult decision to make because patients with advanced dementia are not of sound mind to make decisions regarding their health. It is hard to determine the length of time patients have with advanced dementia. It can be difficult to make the families of a patient with advanced dementia understand that a medication someone has been taking for years is no longer necessary; this causes distress for the family, and is a big decision to make. Patients with advanced dementia may not seem like death is imminent, the decision to discontinue mediations is incomprehensible. This can

Patients with dementia are often not listened to, and their choices about their care get ignored. We as nurses have an ethical responsibility to ensure that our patients are respected when it comes to the choices they make for their own care. Giving patients medication to sustain life when they are at the end of life care is not respecting their wishes. Dementia should be treated as a palliative diagnosis, their symptoms will not improve and this disease will eventually take their life. After a long hard battle with many horrible symptoms, we need to change how we approach care for dementia