Nurse Ethical Dilemma Case Study

Many healthcare providers suffer from the dilemma of which is the best option for the patient to know about their health. In the United States the law inform that the patient have the right to know how sick they are, what to expect from it, and what are the consequences. It is the patient’s right to decide if they want treatment or not depending on the severity of the disease. But, many of the health care professional confront the dilemma of know how the news is going to affect the patients in the positive and negative way and what is the family members opinion about informing the patients. There are different point of view regarding in the influence of the news in the patient’s health. In many of our countries family members decided not to inform the patients about their illness because they consider that knowing the truth will depress the patient, that will decrease the immune system and will influence more to the acquire diseases that will affect the patient’s health. Many consider that it is better for the patient to die peacefully without know how sick they are.

It is the patient’s decision to have a treatment or not depending of the severity of the treatment and how it will affect the patient. The nurse ethical dilemma is whether respect the family’s idea of not informing the patient or following the law regarding the patient’s right of knowing the truth. It is known by the nurse that their responsibility is to protect the safety of the patient and that is why making the decision of telling the truth to the patient knowing that it will affect him/her makes it so difficult. It is imperative for the nurses to know the right of the family members in the patient’s