End of Life Care AKA Hospice Care Melissa M. Southern Rhodes State College BHS 1160: Medical Law & Ethics Ms. Dawn Bell Due Date End of Life Care AKA Hospice Care ABSTRACT I will be discussing the topic of End-of-Life Care/Hospice. I will be discussing the moral and ethical issues of this topic. What are the reasons for hospice care? What does it entail? What are the moral and ethical issues of this subject? What are the standards that end-of-life care/hospice is held to? I will be talking about the history, the challenges in the decision- making processes, the roles we as healthcare professionals play and the role the patients play in end-of-life care. The goal of hospice is to keep the dignity of the patient at the forefront, to maintain …show more content…
The hospice team will address these symptoms for the patient so they can have a better quality of life. The last area is religious and existential beliefs. The symptoms can include religious or non-religious beliefs such as the nature of existence and the possibility of afterlife concerns. These areas of hospice care are not commonly addressed in other specialties. There are many more areas such as compassion, dignity and support for the patient and family that are vital to hospice care. Ethical and Moral Issues for Hospice Care Team As part of the hospice care team, your morals and values may conflict with the wishes of a patient or even the family over their decision making. Hospice workers that have a good understanding and know what will or could happen during the death process can learn how to deal with the conflict. You should also learn ways to cope and work through the feelings and ethical issues you experience while doing your job. The hospice care team should have a good grasp of the ethical standards of care. The 4 standard principles of ethical care and decision making of patients are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and
near the end of life has numerous ethical challenges particularly because of their designation as a special population. This has created an ethical dilemma for both investigators, providers and institutional review boards. It is for this reason that many have called for the non-participation of dying patients in research, while some have argued against it. However, there remains an uncertainty about the ethical limits of palliative care research. This paper focuses on three key ethical issues which
illnesses. Most of the deaths are end-of-life cases. As people age, many ethical dilemmas can affect the elderly population. Ethical dilemmas can be difficult situations that have many biases when making decisions. The ethical dilemma that is an issue for many older adults is end-of-life care. Many elderly patients who have terminal illnesses have end-of-life care that is in their decision-making or their power of attorney. The ethical dilemma with end-of-life care is who is making the decisions (Adkeniz
Ethical issues arises when not all values can be respected. Our care for patients should be based on sound judgement or evidence based practice. In health care there is not only one discipline that deals with the issues, there is the law, technology, policy makers, society and the system that prescribe or create certain behaviors. Ethics is relevant to all aspects of health care delivery However, there are numerous social policy issues related to ethical challenges that can impact patients, families
End of life care (palliative) was first seen by a physician Dame Cicely Saunders, “who began her work with the terminally ill in 1948 and eventually went on to create the first modern hospice St. Christopher’s Hospice in a residential suburb of London” (History of Hospice Care, 2015). Saunders then introduced the idea of specialized care for the dying to the United States during a 1963 visit with Yale University. After she made the introduction palliative later became the development of hospice
that guide behavior. “Values involve what is considered important and what is not” (Kirst-Ashman, 2016, p. 60). As a professional social worker, one must be able to clearly identify and understand where he or she stands concerning ethical issues. “Social workers have ethical responsibilities to clients, to colleagues, in practice settings, as professionals, to the social work profession, and to the broader society” (Kirst-Ashman, 2016, p. 61). Another ongoing task for social workers is to effectively
any health care decision can be made (Boonstra & Nash, 2000). These laws do not include health sensitive medical care like prescriptions for contraception, abortion of fetus, pregnancy care or drug addiction rehabilitation. Pediatric nurses are in a unique position that serves as the facilitator of patient care and patient care decision-making between the pediatric patient and the patient’s parents. In this position, pediatric nurses become immersed in the concept of family-centered care, and because
with the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession and quality in nursing care. The Code of Ethics has excellent guidelines for how nurses should behave, however; these parameters are not specific. They do not identify what is right and wrong, leaving nurses having to ultimately make that decision. Ethics in nursing involves individual interpretation based on personal morals and values. Nursing professionals have the ethical accountability to be altruistic, meaning a nurse who cares for patients
physician would try to influence her decision away from her family and offer a secret transfusion that would be unethical. According to the textbook ethical decision making was derived from natural law. It is thought that healthcare ethics interprets God’s will to determine how we can make for fellow human beings. All clinical scenarios are based on ethical principles which travel back to Ancient Greece writings by Aristotle’s for the foundation of ethics. Each profession has a code of ethics for standards
regarding physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and euthanasia has become a major ethical issue in medical practice as well as an issue that involves the law and public policy. By definition, physician-assisted suicide is when a physician provides the necessary means (equipment or medication), or informs the patient of the most efficacious use of already available means, for the purpose of assisting the patient in ending his or her life.1-2 Euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, is the act or practice of
Ethical Issues Ethical issues are “moral challenges” facing the health care profession (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012, p. 127). Ethical issues is a major concern in the healthcare field because healthcare providers observe ethical issues every day and have to make ethical decisions. Advance directives are written documents that addressed an individual’s medical care preferences. These documents usually take effect when patients no longer can make informed health care decisions for themselves. While
Advance Directives It is most important part of ethical decision making. Advance directives are the legal documents that are used by the patient to record future events if in case the patient lacks ability to make any kind decision regarding his/her health. There will be bunch of documents like living will, durable power of attorney for health care, advance health care directive or health care directive, Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form, mental health advance directive
Ethic in Healthcare Ethics is a major branch of philosophy that guides in determining what is right and wrong. Ethical principles are the core elements characteristic of health professionals. Ethical principles important to the health care environment are as follows: • Beneficence • Autonomy • Veracity • Justice • Nonmaleficence • Fidelity • Confidentiality These principles are a guide to conduct. Each principle can be applied to the professional interactions of the healthcare provider with patients
comfortable is the purpose of comfort care, however there could be a very thin line between what we consider terminal sedation and euthanasia. In theory, comfort care is quite different from euthanasia. Keeping the patient comfortable and letting the nature take its course is at the core of comfort measures (Gamliel, 2012). Yet, the line between keeping comfortable and facilitating death is often blurry. Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering
case, does this little girl have the right to end her life due to her terminal illness. Valentina Maureira has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a baby. Her disease has no cure and the genetic disease has severely debilitates patients by clogging their lungs and organs making it hard to breath. The disease mess with the lungs and organs by covering it up with a thick layer of mucus. Valentina Maureria has made a decision she wants to end her life since she will not have to bear with the pain
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