Sarah Stow Ethical Dilemmas

Introduction:

The lives of humans are impacted by many factors, such as culture, religion, upbringing, individual values, and beliefs. These factors have an immense role in shaping the views and decisions of healthcare professionals and patients. And differences in perspectives and opposing actions are often times, the cause of an ethical dilemma. To examine how principles of ethics apply to healthcare professionals in the duties of their profession, Sarah Stow, a nurse, was interviewed. Similar to many other healthcare professions, ethics are a fundamental part of nursing. In the interview, Stow shared great examples of the ethical dilemmas she has encountered and how the dilemmas were addressed and/or resolved.

Interview:

The four traditional

An example of this was in several nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities she has dealt with. There was an instance where there were as many as 40 acutely ill patients, (at one time, these patients remained hospitalized) for a staff of perhaps one nurse and two nursing assistants. It is not ethical to place a patient in this dangerous situation, especially since "evidence-based practices" has shown that a quality care is directly proportional to the amount of nursing care a patient receives, specifically by registered nurses, with the proper training and experience. (Clark, 2018) Staffing is often times expensive and mandates electronic charting and monitoring to have taken the place of expertise. Machines do not take the place of humans, but they are cheaper. This is a very concerning problem, and those who speak of ethics tend to leave these types of realities out of the discussion. Quality is slowly being sacrificed for reduced

The patient’s autonomy was violated. The staff failed to inform the patient the nature of his disease and the options he has on moving forward. The patient was simply told that his kidney was failing him, he does not need to be put on dialysis, and that all that's left for him was to die. When he was referred to hospice by his home healthcare, his condition was poor and his health was extremely in danger, especially since he still refused dialysis. While hospice took its time to run the necessary paperwork required, the home health did not bring him on service because he was a liability, and inappropriate under the description of it and no payment would have been rendered. The home health that worked with him stated that they were under no obligation to provide him care since he was not their patient anymore. He was "dumped", so to speak. Eventually, he received the right care he needed after his paperwork was completed, but he was underserved. Something tragic could have happened to him in the duration of the time it took to get him in hospice. These situations should not be allowed to occur. And there should be a system implemented to addressed situations such as the case of the dialysis patients so that the lives of patients aren’t endangered due to systematic regulatory problems required by facilities. Due to the increase