Registered Nurse Intensive Care Unit Order Instructions: Read the following scenario then answer the questions:
Scenario: An RN working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is caring for a patient with an acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage related to liver failure that resulted from alcoholic cirrhosis.
During the hand-off report at the end of the shift, the outgoing RN states to the incoming RN, “I have been in that room all day, transfusing blood products and giving medications. It’s so much work for really no reason. I don’t know why this patient drank to the degree he did to destroy his liver. He did this to himself. What a waste of resources. I heard his family wants to get him on a list for a liver transplant.”
Answer the following Questions:
1-What is the most appropriate way for the incoming RN to approach this situation? Include ethical and legal considerations.
2-What is the role of the RN in regard to addressing the value system of other health care workers that may have a negative impact of the delivery of patient care? Include ethical and legal considerations.
Requirements & Attention to the writer, Make sure the following is accomplished with this paper:
1-Please focus on answering the questions and supporting your answers with the evidence and examples
2-Once you have thoroughly completed this objective expand on the subject a little
3-Please support the intervention directly if applicable..
4- APA style
5-2 pages long to 550 words or more
6- Provide 2 citations from the text books ( Hinkle, J., & Cheever, K. (2014). Brunner and Suddarth’s textbook of medical-surgical nursing (13th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Thanks for your attention to the requirements and details.
More information from the text book and chapters on the subject matter.
Required:
Textbooks:
Brunner and Suddarth’s textbook of medical-surgical nursing **
• Chapter 49: Assessment and Management of Patients With Hepatic Disorders
• Chapter 50: Assessment and Management of Patients With Biliary Disorders
Nursing Diagnosis
• Use your chosen Nursing Diagnosis Guidebook to review the nursing diagnoses specific to the content covered in this module.
Registered Nurse Intensive Care Unit Sample Answer
Question 1
The incoming RN must stick to the treatment regiments for the patient. The main function of a nurse is helping the patient and improves the patient’s outcome. It is clear that the outgoing RN is not interested in caring for the patient and is instead blaming the patients for the condition of the patient. From a legal perspective, the incoming RN has a duty of care to the patient (Brunner and Suddarthâ, 2015). This is to say, the incoming RN will be liable for negligence in case he considers the advice of the outgoing RN. But there is also an ethical perspective of the situation. The incoming RN is in an ethical dilemma on whether to withdraw services or continue with the service.
Moral dilemmas are situations most healthcare professionals would want to find themselves in owing to the difficulty in weighing how much to give and take. Healthcare professionals are expected to hold onto certain codes of practice in order to remain within the guidelines of practice. However, when moral dilemmas come in, they tend to influence an individual’s moral values and beliefs in the process (Hinkle & Cheever, 2013). There are various ethical principles that are central to nursing care and which are relevant to this case. One of them is non-beneficence which requires medical practitioners, other things remaining constant, to do good, that which will enhance the interest of the patient (Hinkle & Cheever, 2013). The principle of non-malfeasance requires that, other things remaining constant, the healthcare professionals should by all means avoid doing any harm to the patient, or that which may go against the interests of the patient. By neglecting the patient as the outgoing RN has suggested, the RNs will be causing harm to the patient rather than reducing harm. Another ethical principle is that of justice, which requires that the medical goods and services are fairly distributed.
Question 2
RNs have a bigger role to play in emphasizing the functions of nurses, especially to those nurses who might be having negative attitudes towards their profession or the patients. One of the functions of RNS is supervision and oversight on junior nurses or peers that might be struggling in certain nursing areas. To this end, RNs have the responsibility of emphasizing to other nurses that nursing’s main objective is taking care of people (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen & Korhonen, 2015). In order to prevent the negative attitude, the RN should make it clear that the law recognizes nurses as individuals who nurtures people, protects them from harm and provides them with comfort to the best of her ability until they are able to fend for themselves. Legally, therefore, a nurse should be prepared to care for the sick and dying with skill and compassion.
Among other things, it is incumbent upon a healthcare professional to tell a patient the truth about the condition of the illness in order to let her make choice by herself. Further, it is important that the nurses exhaust all possible alternatives before recommending the patient for an organ transplant. In order to deal with the negative attitude, the RN must be reminded that besides the duty of care, RNs must learn to make the most of life, focus on the people and things that matter. Consequently, in order to offer the best care, RNs must consider ethical principles, including rights, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and fidelity (Brunner and Suddarthâ (2015). That is to say, a nurse is not capable of providing the holistic needs of a patient without applying ethics or ethical concepts.
Words: 590
Registered Nurse Intensive Care Unit References
Brunner and Suddarthâ (2015). Textbook of medical-surgical nursing. Chapter 49: Assessment
and Management of Patients With Hepatic Disorders.
Hinkle, J., & Cheever, K. (2014). Brunner and Suddarth’s textbook of medical-surgical nursing (13th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 71(8), 1744-1757.
