Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients

Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients
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Nursing Ethical Dilemmas when Dealing with Elderly Dementia Patients
Members of the nursing profession are faced with the ultimate obligation of fostering the indispensable morals of preserving life and minimizing suffering on the side of their clients. As a consequence, Ganz, Wagner, and Toren (2015, p.43) reveal that these professionals need to uphold all processes aimed at fostering the codes of confidentiality, rectitude, and colleagueship when undertaking their day-to-day career activities. However, key players in the nursing profession such as Nightingale put a lot of emphasis on the potency of caregivers to develop and nurture obedience and servitude as essential traits in their areas of practice exposes them to multiple dilemmas. Kim, Han, and Kim (2015, p.468) reveal that dealing with patients suffering from dementia is one of the medical fields of practice in which ethical dilemmas are inevitable. According to Dwarswaard and van de Bovenkamp (2015, p.1132), patients with dementia are faced with difficulties in their abilities to make sound decisions concerning issues such as their levels of efficacy to undertake treatments. On the other hand, De Vries, and Plaskota (2017 p.1) explain that the ethical behavior of any medical practitioner is determined by an array of factors. As a consequence of what one nurse considers being ethical could be different from what the other caregiver upholds when attending to a certain distinct situation from another point of view. Justice, respect for patient autonomy, non-maleficence and the inherent duty to act with beneficence are considered by Smebye, Kirkevold and Engedal (2015 p.21) as the four major ethical issues that need to be upheld by nurses when undertaking their career. The current study seeks to undertake a critical analysis of the ethical dilemmas faced by practicing nurses when dealing with patients suffering from dementia.
Scenario Description
Mr. Y is a 62-year-old patient of Mexican origin. He is married to Mrs. Y and has two sons working as businessmen. Y was taken through multiple clinical analyses and was diagnosed with dementia. Based on the medical analyses undertaken, it was evident that the patient’s dementia was as a result of macular degeneration. Patient Y depicted symptoms such as a gradual change in the levels of the eminence of his vision as he complained of seeing distorted lines when reading, the appearance of dark and blurry areas at the center of his vision and sudden changes in his perception of colors. The aforementioned symptomatic expressions acted as proof of the presence of macular degeneration. On the other hand, the patient's physical motion is hindered. As a consequence, patient Y is forced to mobilize with the help of a Zimmer frame. Considering the minimal population of practitioners, patient Y was assigned a Posey alarm that played an essential role in alerting the assigned nurse whenever he stood up.
Autonomy
According to Krautscheid (2017 p.56), the significance of the moral principle of autonomy in nursing practice dates back to the years of establishment ...