Discussion on the Ethical Dilemma
There is a massive obligation toward an individual’s health as healthcare practitioners. Therefore, it is essential to remain ethical through the practice to ensure that things work well for both parties. It is vital to understand that there are times that the patient may push a healthcare worker to be part of unethical practices, which is against the law of nursing and the ethics in place. There are different experiences of ethical dilemmas that nurses are expected to work through and manage to use better solutions without compromising their ethics (Rainer et al., 2018). Those in leadership face a more challenging time, especially with the power to make decisions in healthcare places them in a vulnerable position towards unethical practices. Therefore, the role expects them to be decisive and critical in their decisions regarding medical practitioners in leadership.
Ethical Dilemma
The battle has been great against opioid use, with numerous addicts losing their lives to opioid abuse. However, the challenge is massive for healthcare practitioners who have to handle the patients who refuse to accept they are addicted to opioids (Rainer et al., 2018). A patient had experienced a car accident that affected the patient right leg. After surgery, the patient was left limping on a walking stick. However, the pain would remain in the surgery site, and therefore, from time to time, he would need painkillers. However, constant use of opioids to control the pain resulted in a severe addiction, and the patient became entirely dependent on the drug to survive. When the patient failed to get a prescription, he self-injured his hand to obtain it. However, the hospital policy could not allow him to attain the medication he needed, and therefore he opted to bribe me to get it. It was visible the pain he was in, and consequently it was a challenge for one to say no to the patient. However, to help solve the problem without going to the ethics, I convinced the patient to register in the rehabilitation clinic to help him with withdrawal and addiction. It was successful through a challenge.
Ethical Principle
One of the ethical principles is non-maleficence towards the patient. It means no harm, as referred to in the Hippocratic Oath. A healthcare practitioner should not cause harm, whether intentionally or unintentionally (McDermott-Levy et al., 2018). The main aim is always to do good and take care of patients who require medical assistance. In the case of the patient who was in pain and wanted opioids despite his addiction, it was essential for the healthcare practitioner to act in a manner that did not harm him. The patient was in pain but giving him opioids would harm him further by allowing the patient to go through addiction, affecting his functionality (McDermott-Levy et al., 2018). Therefore, to solve the patient’s problem, there was the need to help him join a rehabilitation center to handle the underlying issue, resulting in the need to use painkillers.
References
McDermott-Levy, R., Leffers, J., & Mayaka, J. (2018). Ethical principles and guidelines of global health nursing practice. Nursing Outlook, 66(5), 473-481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2018.06.013
Rainer, J., Schneider, J. K., & Lorenz, R. A. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in nursing: An integrative review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(19-20), 3446-3461. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14542
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