Learning activity
As a nurse in one of the major hospitals in the United States, one ethical dilemma that I faced involved disclosing a medical diagnosis to a patient. At one encounter with a patient in the hospital, I became stuck between telling the truth to the patient versus being deceptive. A patient had gotten diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, and his family had been informed about this diagnosis. The patient’s family requested that the patient not be told about his diagnosis. During one of my mourning routines, the patient pleaded that I tell him about his medical condition. As a nurse, I knew that I had an obligation to the given patient and an ethical principle of nonmaleficence and fidelity (Newham, 2014). On top of this, I also had my values of telling the truth to the patient. Despite the obligation that I had of revealing the truth to the patient, I still had to respect the family member’s request.
In relation to medical ethics, autonomy refers to the individual right of any patient to have full control over their body. In this regard, healthcare professionals can provide only advice or suggest but not coerce the given patient into making decisions (Wood, n.d). On its part, the principle of beneficence requires all physicians to do all that is in their power to benefit a patient in any given situation. This principle implies that any treatment recommended by a physician ought to be with the intent of helping the patient. Non- malfeasance is an ethical principle that requires practitioners not to harm their patients in all situations and instances. This principle is closely related to the principle of justice that requires there be an element of fairness in all medical decisions. This principle requires clinicians to uphold all the applicable laws and legislation when it comes to making choices. In relation to medical ethics, the principle of Veracity requires that clinicians be truthful with their patients. This principle dictates that, at all times, nurses are not to hold back the truth from their patients even if such truth might lead to a patient being distressed.
In the ethical dilemma that I was involved in, the moral principle that got breached was that of veracity. This is so as I was forced to withhold the truth from the patient under my care. This ethical dilemma was resolved by having family members consent to letting all the involved nurses share the truth with the given patient as they saw fit. On an individual level and as a nurse, I would first of all try seek the consent of the family members and let them know how important it is for the patient to know the truth about their condition as a way of resolving the given situation. I would have talked to the patient’s family to tell the patient about his health in the best way possible.