Patient Ethical Dilemmas

Patient and Family Involvement to Ethical Issue on Care Decision Making

Purpose: Decision making is a crucial element in the field of medicine and health care. The physician has to determine what is wrong with the patient and recommend treatment, while the patient has to decide whether or not to seek medical care, and go along with the treatment recommended by the physician.

Patients have both rights and responsibilities when it comes to their health and the health care services they receive. Patients have the right to care, treatment, and services that safeguards their personal dignity and respect their cultural, psychosocial and spiritual values. They have the right to participate in decisions about their care and to
Right to Dignity

Dignity is: • A term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of Enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have inherent, inviolable rights, and thus is closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and enlightened reason.

Maintenance of patient dignity is an important element of nursing care that is highly valued by patients. Despite this, dignity is seldom defined and there are few guidelines that nurses may use in their practice to safeguard individual patients' dignity. Important elements in the meaning the nurses ascribed to the notion of patient dignity were the elements of respect, privacy, control, advocacy and time. The characteristics that patients attributed to dignity and its maintenance included respect, privacy, control, choice, humour and matter-of-factness.

The health professionals and givers should know how to respect the patients’ dignity. The only way is to respect all their rights as a human being, as a patient and their values and beliefs in
Perhaps they should be reticent, unless asked or in response to the patient's lead. In any situation where there is an asymmetry of position, power, or health, it is important to avoid intrusiveness or subtle coercion. We should speak of our faith and spiritual hopes and practices only if asked. We could pray for a patient and for guidance, but not pray with them unless it was specifically requested. Yet surely, spiritual resources should be offered and made available to patients, unaccompanied by pressure. Our commitment to benevolent care and the relief of suffering can be communicated in large and small ways. As St. Francis said, "Always preach the gospel, sometimes use words." Deeds and empathy, beneficence, courtesy and respect for the dignity of patients as fellow children of God will convey the good news. A care giver should be trustworthy and never lie, but always make an effort to offer patients hope for as full a life as is possible for them-- even if no cure is possible. We can be grateful for their vocation by demonstrating gratitude to our patients for the privilege of caring for