Ethical Decision Making Model

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Ethical Decision Making Model: End of Life Conflict Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas every day regardless of where we practice or our level of education. Ethics will test our values, integrity, spiritual needs, and legal knowledge. It will involve patients, their families, physicians, co-workers, and management. Some dilemmas will have clear cut answers and resolved almost as quickly as they occur. However, there are instances that do not have a right answer and the outcome has a negative impact on the patient, the family, and the nurse involved. This is known as moral distress. In the following scenario the right action to take seems clear to me, however, the family and physician make it impossible for me to take the appropriate action for my patient (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008; Santiago & Abdool, 2011). The contents of this paper will describe the ethical scenario and provide a model that helps guide me to make and ethical decision. Using the four component model of James Rest (as cited by Robichaux, 2012) will assist me in developing ethical skills that will build on the ethical decision making model developed by Burkhardt and Nathaniel (2008). The five step ethical decision making model encourages the user to consider many factors that include the biological, psychological, and social process of resolving and ethical dilemma (Burkhardt &Nathaniel, 2008; Garity, 2009; Robichaux, 2012).
Scenario
Mr. G. is 56 years old and suffers from advanced stages schizophrenia. Mr. G.’s first visit to our unit was after a fall in the nursing home from which he suffered a hip fracture. Mr. G’s functioning capacity was noted to decline after several visits to our unit. He was no longer able to perform any ADL’s or verbalize his needs. During his last admission, I received him as an ICU transfer. He was unresponsive and did not make eye contact and was on respiratory

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