As an emergency room nurse issues dealing with ethics occurs every day. Doctors who prescribe pain medications through the ER to patients who are “frequent flyers” several times a week with various complaints are enablers. We now can access a patients prescription history on line to see if multiple prescriptions are being written but doctors have to take the time to use it. Reporting doctors to our director has helped but we have a long way to go. This is very frustrating from a nursing stand point.
Original Post
December 28, 2009
Title: Ethics, comment
Review of Health Care Informatics, An Interdisciplinary Approach by Englebardt and Nelson.
Ethical dilemmas in the workplace can be a very difficult situation to deal with as a nurse. We are often put in the position to be the patient’s advocate and that can be a very tough place to be for the nurse. I, too, have been in a situation where my doctor made a decision on an occupational drug test that was clearly unethical. I had to go to our Medical Director to get advice and when he became involved, the original doctor became very upset. However, that being said, I did the right thing and the outcome was correct. It is very difficulty to make a decision to “go over the doctor’s head” but I was being ethical and I slept much better because I had done it. Unlike the previous poster, the doctor did not understand even after much discussion.
Original Post
May 18, 2009
Title: Ethics
https://healthcare-informatics-resources.com/2009/05/18/ethics/
Really enjoyed the chapter on ethics from my textbook in Dr. Johnson’s class; I was lucky enough to attend a 2 day seminar in Ottawa that was mostly focused on ethical dilemma’s in the workplace. We presented different scenario’s which were really useful for future guidance. Of particular interest was the Nurse-Doctor relationship; when to step out of bounds as a patient advocate. We are often faced with difficult decisions regarding treatment of our pts. Do we agree or disagree with what the Dr. has prescribed? In one case I knew if I followed through on the treatment plan that the pt. could suffer undue harm therefore I was left with no choice but to report the problem to a senior medical advisor. It caused an uncomfortable situation for the Dr., and myself however after much discussion he was able to understand I was only acting on behalf of the pt. The chapter really gave me some knowledge of how to handle these situations.
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