A hospital’s standard policy mandates the denial of the medication based on moral, ethical or religious beliefs. In Ventura andDavino, 1996, nurses cannot deny participation simply for religious reasons; only in those cases can nurses refuse involvement. Is A Nurse Obligated To Help Someone? Standards of nursing are always being met by nurses.
Full Answer
Can a nurse refuse to treat a patient based on religion?
Nurses do have a right to refuse to participate in the care of patients that conflict with religious beliefs (i.e., abortion), but they cannot refuse care of a patient based on discrimination or dislike (for example, a prisoner admitted from a correctional facility, an alcohol or drug abuser, etc.).
Can physicians deny care based on their personal beliefs?
But none of these rationales can justify physicians denying care based on their personal beliefs. If a patient walks into my office using threatening language or behaving violently toward me or my staff and fails to improve his behavior despite good-faith attempts at redirection, I can ask him to leave without receiving care.
Can nurses refuse to treat prisoners?
This one can be a bit dicey. Nurses do have a right to refuse to participate in the care of patients that conflict with religious beliefs (i. e., abortion), but they cannot refuse care of a patient based on discrimination or dislike (for example, a prisoner admitted from a correctional facility, an alcohol or drug abuser, etc.).
What can be challenging when a nurse does not believe in?
It can be challenging when a nurse does not believe in specific treatments. Examples of this may include certain vaccines, medications, or invasive surgeries or procedures.
Why do nurses need to avoid compromising the care of patients?
As a culturally competent nurses need to avoid compromising the care of patient because of ethnicity, culture, gender, spiritual values, sexuality, disability, age, economic, social, health status or any other background.
Why is it important to recognize that each patient responds differently to nurses?
It is important to recognised that each patient responds differently to nurses. Not every patient will communicate their feelings and needs. It is the responsibility of the nurse to keep the opportunity that communication to be opened. The nurse must recognized that the patient is an individual not a diagnosis.
What is an advanced practice nurse?
Advanced speciality nurse or advanced practice nurse means the registered nurse having education beyond basic nursing education and certified by nationally recognized professional organization in a nursing speciality, or meeting criteria established by a Board of Nursing. The Board of Nursing establishes rules specifying which professional nursing organization certification can be recognized for advanced nurse and sets requirements of education, training, and experiences (Mosby’s medical dictionary, 2009).
What are the dimensions of culturally competent care?
The dimensions of culturally competent care are caring, cultural sensitivity, cultural knowledge and skills. Nurses can learn to become culturally competent in their care. A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is the foundation of nursing practice. It contributes to patient well being and their health.
What is the most difficult situation in nursing?
One of the most difficult situation in nursing practice is that, despise the best effort, the patient will die. The death may be brain cancer and severely road traffic accident. That situation ‘nothing more can be done patients’, who need comfort and care of everyone until their death.
Why is nursing an interpersonal process?
Nursing can be viewed as an interpersonal process because it involves interaction between two or more individuals with a common goal. The nurse’s as well as the patient’s culture, religion, race, educational background, beliefs, values and expectation all play a part in the nurse’s reaction to the patient.
Why do patients have stressful reactions?
Such stressful reactions may be due to fear of treatment, or dying, degeneration of the various parts of the physiological function, difficulty in sleeping, helplessness, depression and many other underlying reactions of illness.
Why is it unethical to refuse to prescribe contraception to single individuals?
It is unethical to refuse to prescribe contraception to single individuals because of personal or religious objections to premarital or nonprocreative sex.
Why do patients seek care from physicians?
Patients seek care from physicians not only to treat illness but also to promote wellness and flourishing, and physicians have duties to provide this care to the best of their abilities. These include the imperatives to respect patient autonomy, to improve quality of life and longevity when possible, to alleviate suffering, ...
Can an on call team refuse to assist in abortion?
For example, if a pregnant woman comes to the emergency room at night in distress due to what doctors subsequently deem a life-threatening complication of pregnancy and they recommend termination because her fetus is not yet viable, members of the on-call team cannot morally refuse to assist in her abortion.
Is it ethical to refuse a patient's request for treatment?
It is not, however, ethical to refuse a patient’s request for treatment simply on the basis of personal beliefs, including religion. Much like our country’s founding principles that enshrine the separation of church and state, medical ethics must recognize the boundaries between church and medicine.
Can a physician refuse to prescribe antibiotics?
While a physician’s refusal to prescribe antibiotics or opioids may disappoint a patient and potentially result in negative patient satisfaction reviews, physicians are obligated to do no harm and promote wellness over the dubious metric of satisfaction surveys. The customer may always be right, but the patient is not a customer or a client.
What is ethical dilemma in nursing?
A common ethical dilemma nurses face is when the values and beliefs of the patient differ from the family. For example, a family may ask members of the healthcare team to downplay (or even avoid disclosing) the severity of a diagnosis to avoid burdening the patient.
What is an example of a nurse receiving a phone call from a person who asks for an update on
An example would be when a nurse receives a phone call from a person who asks for an update on their spouse's test results. The nurse may have met the spouse and knows they are involved in the care of the patient when present in the hospital. The nurse may feel comfortable divulging health information.
What is the program of interest in nursing?
Program of Interest. 3. Program Specialty. A significant part of being a nurse is dealing with dilemmas and problem-solving on a daily basis. Nurses are constantly faced with issues that require critical thinking and decision making. One of the most problematic concerns involves ethical dilemmas. As much as nurses try to avoid it, ethical ...
Why are privacy screens important for nurses?
Privacy screens help reduce the visibility of patient charts, and passwords are required to access integrated systems. Nurses must keep patient privacy as one of their top priorities. However, breaches can occur even with the best intentions. One common occurrence involves divulging health information to a family member.
Why should nurses include the family in their prognosis?
Being open and honest about the prognosis using factual data is also essential, but at the same time, nurses should include the family to educate on pros and cons of treatment and work to inspire hope, encouragement, and positivity.
How to avoid inadvertently divulging health information inappropriately?
To avoid inadvertently divulging health information inappropriately, nurses should be familiar with their organization's policies and procedures; some facilities must have written release of information forms or use passwords/other identifying information with family members.
Why should nurses verbally communicate concerns to their supervisor?
Nurses should verbalize concerns to their supervisor so that assignments can be switched or replacements found. However, when possible, nurses should practice in care areas where they will be less likely to be faced with these dilemmas. Personal beliefs can also affect how nurses approach patient education.
How does prejudice affect nursing?
Prejudice and discrimination continue to exist in society and have adversely affected the health care system and the nursing profession. Discrimination may be based on differences due to age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any characteristics by which people differ.
Why are nurses accountable?
Registered Nurses are accountable for nursing decisions and actions regardless of personal preferences. Due to the rapidly changing healthcare system the nurse faces increasing ethical dilemmas and human rights issues. Nurses are individually accountable ...
What is a registered nurse accountable for?
Registered Nurses are accountable for nursing decisions and actions regardless of personal preferences. Due to the rapidly changing healthcare system the nurse faces increasing ethical dilemmas and human rights issues. Nurses are individually accountable for caring for each patient and the right to …. Registered Nurses are accountable ...
Why are women of color denied access to health care?
Religious refusal laws also mean women of color — who have historically been denied access to quality health care due to racist and discriminatory policies — face decreased access to health care because hospitals in their neighborhoods are more likely to be religiously affiliated. Mainstream medical groups have recognized the negative effects ...
What is the purpose of religious refusal laws?
Religious Refusal Laws and Conscience Protections Function as Excuses to Discriminate. The Trump-Pence administration, which promoted employers’ religious beliefs over a worker's ability to access affordable birth control, repeatedly fought to eliminate Obama’s bypass measure. In 2017, the Trump-Pence administration issued birth control rules ...
What is the Trump-Pence rule?
In 2017, the Trump-Pence administration issued birth control rules that would allow virtually any employer or university to deny coverage to its employees and students. In early 2018, the Trump-Pence administration proposed its broader religious refusal rule, expanding health care workers’ ability to discriminate and deny people care.
What is religious refusal?
So-called “religious refusal” laws — or “conscience protections” — allow most any health care worker, including pharmacists and volunteers, to deny patients access to services the health care worker deems contrary to their personal beliefs.
Why should refusals be limited?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says refusals should be “limited if they constitute an imposition of religious or moral beliefs on patients, negatively affect a patient's health, are based on scientific misinformation, or create or reinforce racial or socioeconomic inequalities.”.
Why would a pharmacist refuse to fill a prescription for birth control?
A pharmacist could refuse to fill a prescription for birth control or antidepressants, or not administer a vaccine simply because of their own personal beliefs. A hospital administrator could cancel a woman’s life-saving treatment for cancer because it might harm her pregnancy.
Can health care workers deny people's care based on personal objections?
According to one survey, the overwhelming majority of voters don't believe health care workers should be able to deny people care based on personal objections. The measures compound existing barriers to health care faced by transgender patients.
When Patients Are Abusive
Scope of Practice Limitations
- Doctors should not provide treatment outside their scope of practice. As a cardiologist, I have expertise in treating cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, but I do not manage non-cardiac conditions. If a patient of mine with heart disease asks me for pain medication for a lower back strain or antibiotics for an ear infection, I should decline to provide this treatment because it is o…
Upholding Physician Duties
- The third context in which doctors can refuse to provide certain treatments deserves a closer look. Patients seek care from physicians not only to treat illness but also to promote wellness and flourishing, and physicians have duties to provide this care to the best of their abilities. These include the imperatives to respect patient autonomy, to improve quality of life and longevity whe…
Conflicting Physician Duties
- There are some situations in which professional duties inevitably come into conflict with each other. Several states have legalized physician-assisted suicide, though typically with strict criteria such as the need for multiple physicians to confirm the presence of terminal disease and psychiatric evaluation to exclude treatable mental illness. The ethics of physician-assisted suici…
When Objection Is Not Conscientious
- While there circumstances such as the ones I described earlier in which physicians can and should decline to provide treatment, the so-called conscience rule goes too far in its allowances. For example, if a pregnant woman comes to the emergency room at night in distress due to what doctors subsequently deem a life-threatening complication of pregnancy and they recommend t…
Privacy Violations
Withholding Information
- Nursing care is not just the care of the patient. Most of the time, nurses must care for families as well. A common ethical dilemma nurses face is when the values and beliefs of the patient differ from the family. For example, a family may ask members of the healthcare team to downplay (or even avoid disclosing) the severity of a diagnosis to avoid burdening the patient. However, nurse…
Allowing Personal Beliefs to Interfere with Patient Care
- This one can be a bit dicey. Nurses do have a right to refuse to participate in the care of patients that conflict with religious beliefs (i.e., abortion), but they cannot refuse care of a patient based on discrimination or dislike (for example, a prisoner admitted from a correctional facility, an alcohol or drug abuser, etc.). It can be extremely ...
Not Speaking Up Regarding Safety - Including Reporting Peers
- Nurses have a responsibility to keep patients safe at all times. Failing to report safety concerns in their work areas not only places patients at risk, but nurses and other staff as well. Nurses may feel like they are too busy to take time out to report or may be concerned about retaliation. Nurses must be careful though, as failing to report safety concerns, depending on the situation, may pla…