Ethical Issue: Family Presence In The ER

Great Essays
Ethical Issue-Family Presence in the ER
Definition
Family presence is an important consideration in the health care setting, specifically in the emergency room. Family presence is the ability of a family member to have contact with a patient in a health care area during resuscitation or emergency procedures (İşlekdemir & Kaya, 2016, p. 39). Resuscitation is the process health care providers utilize to sustain life and prevent further deterioration (Leske, McAndrew & Brasel, 2013, p. 78). Family is defined by the patient and can include friends, relatives, or significant others. Family can include anyone that has a serious relationship with the patient and can provide support (AACN, 2016, p. 11). Family participation is common during non-immediate
…show more content…
This can cause overwhelming anxiety in a patient or a patient’s family. Family presence is an important ethical consideration when attempting to provide quality health care. A big component to quality health care is patient-centered care, where health care staff provides support based on a patient’s preferences and needs (QSEN, 2014). Family presence also concerns the ethical considerations of beneficence and paternalism. Beneficence involves the desire to help others (ANA, n.d.). Having family members present during invasive procedures can help a patient cope and contribute to beneficence. Paternalism is when the health care providers makes decisions based on a client’s best interest (ANA, n.d). The health care staff must decide if it is in a client’s best interest to have their family present or if it could harm the patient’s health. It important for new and practicing nurses to explore the benefits and disadvantages of family presence to determine their own view on the topic. This will allow these nurses to voice their opinions to management and possible implement ethical regulations. Only ~5% of emergency departments have regulations regarding CPR and family presence (Hardin-Fanning & Yoder, 2014, p. 4). It is very important to establish regulations regarding this topic to be prepared for conflict and educate the staff on how to handle this ethical situation. …show more content…
A randomized controlled experimental study examined the affect of family presence in the ER on a patient’s anxiety and pain levels. This study concluded that there was no significant relationship between family presence and anxiety or pain in patients in the emergency room (İşlekdemir & Kaya, 2016, p. 40). Saying this, there may not be a significant benefit to family presence. Family presence may also harm the patient. Patient care can be delayed if the family tries to interrupt the procedure to ask questions (Hardin-Fanning & Yoder, 2014, p. 4). Family members can get confused and scared during emergent invasive procedures. Interrupting procedures can lead to negative outcomes for the patient, including significant errors or failed resuscitation. Family presence may also have a negative impact on the patient’s family. There have been many reports of diagnosed PTSD in family members who witnessed resuscitation (Hardin-Fanning & Yoder, 2014, p. 4). Although witnessing resuscitation could improve coping abilities, this event could also cause significant mental and emotional stress on these family

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Give an example of patient- and family-centered care with the following core concepts described in the IHI modules: Dignity and Respect. Information Sharing. Participation. Collaboration.…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alabama ISSUES AND TRENDS 2 Roles, Ethical Considerations, and Effectiveness of the Adult Gerontological Acute Care Nurse Practitioner In all healthcare fields the providers are bound by a moral code of ethics that are defined within the ethical principles and serve to guide the care of all individuals. According to Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, and O’Grady (2014) ethical principles are a set of core values that are fundamental obligations that healthcare professionals use to guide all care provided in the medical field. Ethical Principles The Adult Gerontological Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) is guided by a set of ethical principles that help provide the kind of care every individual deserves.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ethical principles are not laws, but guiding principles about what is good and what is bad, that should direct doctors and other health care professionals in their work and decision making. Issues arising over end-of-life care involving decisions that affect the nature and timing of an individual's death raise difficult ethical conflicts for all concerned and can be a source of discord between health professionals within a team, health professionals and family members, or between different family members. Ethical dilemmas arise when there is a perceived conflicting duty to the patient, such as a conflict between a duty to preserve life and a duty to act in a patient's best interests, or when an ethical principle such as respect for autonomy conflicts with a duty not to…

    • 3174 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The third concept in family centered care is participation. Families with the ability to partcipate in treatment plans for the patient results in decreased stress and anxiety, in addition to decreased hospitalization for the child (Coyne, O 'Neill, Murphy, Costello, & O 'shea, 2011). This concept was implemented when the mother was informed that if she observed her son having difficulty breathing or upset, that she can press the call bell and the nurse will come to assist her. Another example in the scenario was when the mother was holding the child during x-rays this enabled the mother to participate with the child’s care, empowering her.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Clinical Ethics Case Study

    • 4835 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Powers K, Rubenstein J. Family presence during invasive procedures in the pediatric intensive care unit. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1999;153:955-958. Redley B, Hood K. Staff attitudes towards family presence during resuscitation. Accid Emerg Nurs.…

    • 4835 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Weekly Self Reflection

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Weekly Self S.O.A.P - A. S- Discuss your SUBJECTIVE feelings for this week. This week I was assigned to be in the ICU. To say that I expected to be busy is an understatement. I knew to expect critically ill patients and to see them at their worse with different types of lines and tubes coming out of their bodies. The fragile state in which these patients find themselves was hard for me to see, it was actually a bit overwhelming the first day.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Comfort of Ignorance Much of my life has been filled with blissful ignorance about the world. Growing up, I was consumed by the little problems of my life and never thought twice about the hardships of others. However, as a self-absorbed fourteen year-old, I found that although ignorance is comfortable, it blocks the true reality of what the world is. It was a crisp, clear, and unusually warm winter day when I had to shadow my mom in the ER.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This literature review will examine the pre-existing research undertaken on family presence during adult resuscitation (FPDAR) to determine health professional attitudes and experiences in critical care environments regarding FPDAR within Europe. The topic FPDAR was chosen due to the authors experience whilst in placement of a family member being refused permission to remain with their loved one during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The reason the family member was refused permission to remain at the bedside was because there was no hospital policy that stated if a family member was or was not permitted to remain. The author wanted to understand why FPDAR was not being encouraged in practice as the role of a nurse is to provide patient with…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Pediatric Palliative Care

    • 1729 Words
    • 7 Pages

    chance to engage in normal family functions, and gives them social opportunities (Hill and Coyne,2012). These home visits serve to keep an update on any new developing symptoms and any resources that the family might still need. Communication is key during these home visits. Arland et al. (2013) stated, “The home visits enhance the ability of the healthcare providers, to deliver more accurate healthcare information about the child based on current assessments of the child’s need, and to have sufficient time to provide reassurance to the family minimizing the need to transport the dying child to the clinic or hospital”.…

    • 1729 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Annotated Bibliography Bashayreh, I., Saifan, A., Batiha, A., Timmons, S., Nairn, S. (2015). Health professionals’ perceptions regarding family witnessed resuscitation in adult critical care settings. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(17), 2611-2619. doi: 10.1111/jocn.12875 In the study, Bashayreh, Saifan, Batiha, Timmons and Nairn attempt to provide an understanding, of the perceptions of health care professionals on family witnessed resuscitation CPR.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dnr Orders Essay

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The most frequent challenge of DNR orders is the lack of one. A DNR order, “Is arguably one of the most important decisions in patient care. Previous research suggests that patients and families might lack general knowledge about what the term do not resuscitate implies and this confusion can lead to added stress at already difficult times” (Robinson, Boyko, Berkowitz, Calam, & Collins, 2012). This can present a situation where ethical and moral decision making collide for a nurse. Ethically speaking, the nurse is to follow and advocate for their patient’s wishes, however, in some cases patients have not made their families aware of DNR orders that they have in place.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many nurses are faced with ethical and legal dilemmas constantly in the health care setting. We as nurses need to understand the laws that pertain to our scope of practice and respect our patient’s decisions whether they interfere with our own personal views. Ethical dilemmas become more problematic when you take into consideration that each nurse has their own personal set of ethics depending on what they see as wrong and right. Nurses spend a lot of time with the patient and it allows them to have a deep connection which makes it hard to not get involved. We become our patients advocate so much that it can also be our greatest weakness because we do not know when to let go.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethical Issues In Nursing

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is with no much doubt that the health care industry, above any other shows a high degree of concern for issues encompassing the wellness of their clients (patients). Ethical quandaries in health care are often times enthralling and exacting because it puts the health care worker in a position to come up with decision(s) that attempts to balance two or maybe more diverse opinions, both of which have their own ethical excellence. Every day, doctors, nurses and other health professionals are forced to make ethical decisions that abide by the code of ethics set by ethical committees in the health sector. The purpose of the codes is to guide healthcare givers towards identifying, understanding, and resolving tough ethical decisions that involves patients and their families. However, each ethical quandary demands a tradeoff of…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An example of this is, a physician may ask a nurse to withhold information on a patient’s health status until further tests are done. Sometimes, a family member may request the health care professionals to not divulge to their loved one how aggressive their disease is. A palliative setting is defined as an environment where an individual with a severe life-threatening disease or aggressive diseases, are helped with decisions about end of life care (Erichsen, Danielsson, Friedrichsen, 2010). Health care professionals are faced with many ethical dilemmas especially when the family members of the patient disagree with how their loved one should be cared for; the disagreement of stopping a certain treatment, withholding fluids and nutrition, the signing of a “do not resuscitate” form, the administration of pain medication, disclosing their diagnosis and prognosis etc. (McCabe & Coyle, 2014).…

    • 1091 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our core duty is to heal not judge. Not only is it important for us to be non-judgmental and empathic, we also need to advice the family members of the sufferer to follow suit. Sometimes it is our discomfort that makes us appear abrupt when dealing with a patient.…

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays