Assignment 4:
The purpose of the paper is to assess an issue of moral distress experienced in critical care nurses utilizing the framework explained in Realities of Canadian Nursing: Professional, Practice, and Power Issues written by McDonald and McIntyre (2014).
Articulating the Issue: nurses’ moral distress in ICU
Critical care nursing demands ongoing update of knowledge and skills, adaptation of new technologies, and ability to deliver ethical and critical judgement quickly and precisely for the patients as well as their family in the most acute phase of the patients’ hospital stay. Aging population and growing number of obesity lead to increasing acuity of patients. With improved medical knowledge and technologies, more patients survive and live with a mechanical ventilation. The drive of this high-demand working condition of critical care nurses is often a pride of doing good and right things for the patients, their significant others, and our society when they are at their most difficult time. Another word, when the nurse knows the patient’s wish or the ethically best possible care for the patient but constrained to provide it, they lose their purpose and even start to question own ethical judgment and believes. The curfew is the other power holders such as organizational protocols, doctors’ orders, family wish, and society, who force the nurse to act in certain way which may or may not be totally patient focused (Epstein & Delgado, 2010). Such situations potentially cause nurses in critical care area to face emotional and ethical conflicts, and can lead to moral distress. (Canadian Nurses’ Association [CAN], 2003, 2008; De Villers & DeVon, 2013; Epstein & Delgado, 2010). Other situations include but not …show more content…
Do nurses lack in assertive communication skills? Or nurses are yet to be a part of ethical decision making team? How can we reduce moral distress among
The purpose of the paper is to assess an issue of moral distress experienced in critical care nurses utilizing the framework explained in Realities of Canadian Nursing: Professional, Practice, and Power Issues written by McDonald and McIntyre (2014).
Articulating the Issue: nurses’ moral distress in ICU
Critical care nursing demands ongoing update of knowledge and skills, adaptation of new technologies, and ability to deliver ethical and critical judgement quickly and precisely for the patients as well as their family in the most acute phase of the patients’ hospital stay. Aging population and growing number of obesity lead to increasing acuity of patients. With improved medical knowledge and technologies, more patients survive and live with a mechanical ventilation. The drive of this high-demand working condition of critical care nurses is often a pride of doing good and right things for the patients, their significant others, and our society when they are at their most difficult time. Another word, when the nurse knows the patient’s wish or the ethically best possible care for the patient but constrained to provide it, they lose their purpose and even start to question own ethical judgment and believes. The curfew is the other power holders such as organizational protocols, doctors’ orders, family wish, and society, who force the nurse to act in certain way which may or may not be totally patient focused (Epstein & Delgado, 2010). Such situations potentially cause nurses in critical care area to face emotional and ethical conflicts, and can lead to moral distress. (Canadian Nurses’ Association [CAN], 2003, 2008; De Villers & DeVon, 2013; Epstein & Delgado, 2010). Other situations include but not …show more content…
Do nurses lack in assertive communication skills? Or nurses are yet to be a part of ethical decision making team? How can we reduce moral distress among