Health Care Law and Ethics

The practice of medicine is a moral obligation that should be founded on the frameworks of ethical and legal understanding. To ensure this, it is imperative for all the medical practitioners and caregivers to be familiar with all the needs of the patient; including the prerogatives of their prerogatives, they are met. An advanced directive is a legally binding made by either the patient’s attorney or doctor that indicated the type of decisions and actions that should be taken if the patient is in critical or end-of-life care (Hall et al., 2018). In this regard, an advanced directive should be used to avoid confusion about the patient’s treatment and care plan. The patient’s physician is in apposition to decide when to issue an advanced directive, such as a do-not-resuscitate (DNR). The confusion in the patient’s scenario arose because of the discord in the patient’s attorney and physician’s directives. The DNR conflicted the patient’s will to live. 

To pre-empt the occurrence of the scenario in my future practice, I will ensure that I ascertain if there is an advanced directive from both the doctor and the patient’s family. Ethical consideration is important in assessing the situation, especially in the event of conflicting advanced directives. A power of attorney indicating that the patient has a living will trumps the doctor’s DNR order. The ethical principle of non-maleficence implies that the treatment action should not cause harm to the patient. Autonomy, on the other hand, implies that the patient of their family should be aware of the medical decision or cation made regarding their care (Hall et al., 2018). In the scenario, both principles were contravened. The medical staff in charge of the patient was thus liable for legal action. The existing gaps that existed in the scenario were primarily the discord in communication between the medical staff and the patient’s family. The situation could have been remedied through consultation of all parties before making a decision or taking action concerning the patient’s care. It is also not clear whether the patient intentionally removed his oxygen tube, prompting the CVA. The nurse should not have left the patient unattended to when she went to fetch a replacement oxygen tube. 

Reference 

Hall, M. A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M. A., Bagley, N., & Cohen, I. G. (2018).  Health care law and ethics . Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.