It is challenging to engage in meaningful discussions with patients when moral and ethical dilemmas present themselves.
How we engage with our patients can have a profound impact on the care they receive and the decisions they make.
The following exercise will present you with moral and ethical dilemmas common to many clinical practices. The moral and ethical challenges here are often ones the practitioner will have strong, personal feelings about.
Your task in this exercise is to serve as the practitioner advocate for the patient by engaging in dialog that does not project personal bias or prejudice while also providing the patient with the medical information needed to make an informed, personal decision. As you choose your responses, try to use one of the ethical decision-making models we’ve explored to systematically evaluate each dilemma and choose the best way to engage the patient in dialog.
https://webapps.srm-app.net/CanvasContent/SF/WCU_NURS_521_DE_TEMPLATE/Case_Study/Conducting%20Moral%20and%20Ethical%20Dialog%20in%20Clinical%20Practice/story_html5.html
The following questions refer to your experience in this week’s exercise, Conducting Moral and Ethical Dialog in Clinical Practice. Describe your overall experience with the moral and ethical dialog exercise, and address at least three (3) of the following:
- Did you find any of the scenarios more difficult to deal with than others?
- Did you feel any internal conflict with any of the scenarios?
- How did your personal and professional background impact how you decided to interact with the patient?
- Do you feel the responses the patient gave to the practitioner’s response were reasonable or typical?
- Were you taken aback by any of the patient reactions?
- How might this activity contribute to your role as a nurse advocate in a moral and ethical practice?
- Did you utilize an ethical decision making model to explore a systematic way to evaluate any of these ethical dilemmas? If so, describe the effectiveness.
