Phi 413 case study analysis: healing and autonomy
Case Study: Healing and Autonomy
Mike and Joanne are the parents of James and Samuel, identical twins born 8 years ago. James is currently suffering from acute glomerulonephritis, kidney failure. James was originally brought into the hospital for complications associated with a strep throat infection. The spread of the A streptococcus infection led to the subsequent kidney failure. James’s condition was acute enough to warrant immediate treatment. Usually cases of acute glomerulonephritis caused by strep infection tend to improve on their own or with an antibiotic. However, James also had elevated blood pressure and enough fluid buildup that required temporary dialysis to relieve.
The attending physician suggested immediate dialysis. After some time of discussion with Joanne, Mike informs the physician that they are going to forego the dialysis and place their faith in God. Mike and Joanne had been moved by a sermon their pastor had given a week ago, and also had witnessed a close friend regain mobility when she was prayed over at a healing service after a serious stroke. They thought it more prudent to take James immediately to a faith healing service instead of putting James through multiple rounds of dialysis. Yet, Mike and Joanne agreed to return to the hospital after the faith healing services later in the week, and in hopes that James would be healed by then.
Two days later the family returned and was forced to place James on dialysis, as his condition had deteriorated. Mike felt perplexed and tormented by his decision to not treat James earlier. Had he not enough faith? Was God punishing him or James? To make matters worse, James’s kidneys had deteriorated such that his dialysis was now not a temporary matter and was in need of a kidney transplant. Crushed and desperate, Mike and Joanne immediately offered to donate one of their own kidneys to James, but they were not compatible donors. Over the next few weeks, amidst daily rounds of dialysis, some of their close friends and church members also offered to donate a kidney to James. However, none of them were tissue matches.
James’s nephrologist called to schedule a private appointment with Mike and Joanne. James was stable, given the regular dialysis, but would require a kidney transplant within the year. Given the desperate situation, the nephrologist informed Mike and Joanne of a donor that was an ideal tissue match, but as of yet had not been considered—James’s brother Samuel.
Mike vacillates and struggles to decide whether he should have his other son Samuel lose a kidney or perhaps wait for God to do a miracle this time around. Perhaps this is where the real testing of his faith will come in? Mike reasons, “This time around it is a matter of life and death. What could require greater faith than that?”
Benchmark Assignment – Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection
Spirituality and religion are touchy topics and every individual exhibits their own beliefs. These beliefs are to be shown consideration regardless of what one’s own beliefs or practices are. The nurse’s duty is to remain professional and to provide complete care of the patient, including spiritual care, to all patients minus prejudice. This total care should also concentrate on the patient’s religious and spiritual principles.
According to the Joint Commission (2005), even though there has been an increase in responsiveness to the importance of patient’s spiritual beliefs within healthcare, professionals within the field are still overlooking the importance of those beliefs. By ignoring a patient’s spirituality, their needs are not being met and it should be understood that the significance of understanding a patient’s spiritual worldview is imperative to care. “Religion and spirituality as measurements of a person’s “spiritual worldview” allows us to be responsive to the complex and diverse ways in which people personalize their beliefs (Josephson & Peteet, 2004).” This indicates that healthcare workers are not as likely to come to certain conclusions regarding their patient’s wishes based on an all-encompassing phrase noted on their medical records. This essay will ascertain an assessment tool in order to perform a spiritual assessment and will also offer a comprehensive analysis of the interview. This analysis will include the outcome of the interview, barriers found during the interview, and the effectiveness of the assessment tool.
Choses Assessment Tool
In order to increase attentiveness to delivering spiritual care to patients, completely assessing a patient’s needs, including their spiritual needs is essential and should be addressed. A tool was selected to aid in this interview, that tool was the Faith Availability and Coping Treatment (F.A.C.T.). With this tool, the healthcare professional is able to perform a detailed analysis of a patient’s spiritual needs upon admission. The tool also allows healthcare professionals to attain valuable understanding of the patient’s spiritual history, practices and the way those aspects may affect their capability to handle their current healthcare issues (LaRocca-Pitts, 2012). Having insight into how a patient’s faith may affect their health is vital to making spirituality a significant part of the American healthcare system.
With the purpose of addressing the spiritual needs of a patient, the healthcare worker should have a well-defined grasp of religion and spirituality. Along with that grasp, they should understand the patient’s spiritual worldview, as well as a useful assessment tool to aid them in the process. Religion is often portrayed as the order of shared beliefs and conventional practices (Miller & Thoresen, 2009). Many spiritualities have traditional practices and beliefs relating to healthy lifestyles, illness, and dying. Spirituality carries different meanings for every individual; therefore, there is not a general definition or portrayal of spirituality.
Analysis of Interview
For the purpose of completing this assignment, the writer has chosen to interview her landlord, M.J., who manages a building but also has a master’s degree in education. The interviewee is a devout Christian, with two grown children, and an elderly husband who suffers from dementia. She attends St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in New Orleans, LA as often as she can when her husband’s illness permits. The interview took place in her living room at her personal residence and lasted 20-30 minutes.
Prior to commencing the interview, the writer informed M.J. that she would remain anonymous. This particular interview was informal and was more conversational which made it enjoyable to both parties and allowed for more detailed responses. The F.A.C.T. assessment tool helped to guide the writer with the initial steps toward building a spiritual care plan.
A few barriers were noted while leading this interview. Anxiety was found to be the greatest challenge due to the fact that the writer has not used this tool before. With that being said, M.J. helped to decrease the level of anxiety by being so willing to participate in this process. Another barrier posed were frequent interruptions by the interviewee’s husband. The husband needed her attention and help even though she had already explained to him that she needed a few minutes to speak with the writer. For future interviews, the writer will make sure these barriers are minimal and will attempt to avoid interruptions.
With the distinct perception of F.A.C.T., the writer is enabled the knowledge to gather understanding of the patient’s spirituality and to deliver proper care to meet their spiritual needs. With this tool, the writer learned M.J.’s views on illness. The interviewee explained that during times of sickness, her spirituality is amplified. Through those rough times, she finds shelter in her religion by praying and seeking fellowship with other members of her congregation. M.J. finds that for the duration of and after an illness that her relationship with God has strengthened. King (2000) stated that, when patients are ill and hospitalized, they often ask questions in regard to their spirituality and show spiritual concerns. While conducting the interview, the interviewee described the moment she was notified that she had breast cancer and would have to undergo a total mastectomy. She explained how her faith in God aided her through the process.
Conclusion
In conclusion, healthcare professionals should strive to meet the entire needs of every patient, which contain the patient’s spirituality. By doing this, the healthcare provider can enable trust between the provider and the patient and superior holistic care should be promoted. By using the F.A.C.T. spiritual assessment tool, valuable spiritual information can be obtained which can further improve care as well as patient outcomes. Finally, reestablishing spirituality within healthcare should be of upmost importance.
References
Josephson, A., & Peteet, J. (2004). Handbook of spirituality and worldview in clinical
Practice Washington DC: American Psychiatric Publishing
King, D.E. (2000). Faith, spirituality, and medicine: Toward the making of the healing practitioner. New York, NY: Haworth Pastoral Press.
LaRocca-Pitts, M., BCC. (2012). FACT, A Chaplain’s Tool for Assessing Spiritual Needs in an Acute Care Setting. Retrieved from http://www.professionalchaplains.org/files/publications/chaplaincy_today_online/volume _28_number_1/28_1laroccapitts.pdf
Miller, W.R., & Thoresen, C. E (2009). Spirituality and Health. In W.R. Miller (Ed.), In Integrating spirituality into treatment. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
The Joint Commission (2005). Evaluating your spiritual assessment process. Retrieved from http://www.professionalchaplains.org/files/resources/reading_room/evaluating_your_spiritual_assesment_process.pdf
Healing and Autonomy Case Study
In the case study: “Healing and Autonomy ” there are pressing issues relating to the Christian narrative and Christian vision, where a child is overcome with an illness that has reached a critical stage where the child requires invasive procedures such as hemodialysis and eventually a kidney transplant. The parents, Mike and Joanne are devoted Christians who try to put their faith in God. The patient, an eight-year-old boy named James, has a twin brother Samuel. This case study involves the family and physician attempting to make a decision that is both ethical and moral. Mike and Joanne’s strong faith in Christianity and commitment to their children, James and Samuel, make it difficult to determine which decision is best. Some of the most pressing issues are directly related to human life and whether one should allow faith to heal or use medicine and intervene. Over the course of this paper, this author will expose the most pressing issues, determine the physician’s obligation to prevent harm, analyze patient rights, and explain how a Christian should view sickness and health while trusting in God.
With any illness of a loved one, there are others who need to make decisions about their loved one’s care. Most parents try to prevent their children from illness but unfortunately, it is not always easy. The child, in this case, is dependent on his parents to keep him safe. The parents have an obligation to protect their child and maintain their child’s trust. As a Christian, having faith and trust in God is part of life. The parents in this case study decide to use this faith in hopes that their son will be cured. After faith and prayer do not produce results, the physician presses the family to make decisions in a timelier manner to save the child. One of these decisions is whether to use the child’s twin brother for an organ donor. While the parents ponder on what they should do, the child’s life is dependent on the rapid response of the medical team, but the healthcare workers cannot act without consent from the parents.
A new approach to ethics has evolved recently which considers some of the current issues. This approach is called Bioethics which is “commonly understood as a generic term for three main sub-disciplines: medical ethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. Each sub-discipline has its own particular area of bioethics, but there is a significant overlap of many issues, ethical approaches, concepts, and moral considerations. This makes it difficult to examine and to easily solve vital moral problems such as abortion, xenotransplantation, cloning, stem cell research, the moral status of animals and the moral status of nature (the environment)” (Stewart-Gordon, n.d.). There are many ethical dilemmas that healthcare workers face each day. In this case, the physician must give the parents the options available and ensure they understand the urgent need for decision making. When the parents choose to hold off on medical care to allow faith and prayer to possibly heal their child, the physician must abide by their wishes. It is important to allow patients and their families to make decisions and give them the autonomy they deserve. The physician has an obligation to do no harm while at the same time they are obligated to practice within their scope. Practicing within their scope includes having consent to treat and respecting the wishes of the patient. If the physician has explained all the options and feels that the parents are needlessly allowing harm to a child, the physician can contact other agencies to determine if there are any laws that are being broken. Regardless, patients have rights that must be considered by the healthcare workers.
Patient rights are one of the most well-known words in the healthcare profession. Patients know they have rights and are often well versed in knowing what their rights are. Some of the rights a patient has include the right to be informed of all their options, the right to choose a do not resuscitate status, and the right to accept or deny treatment. Knowing about these rights is important so that patients and their families can make informed decisions about their care. In this case study, the parents have the right to refuse or consent to treatment. While the parents are practicing their rights, the physician struggles with his oath to do no harm. The patient, a minor child, cannot make informed decisions about his care legally. As the ethical dilemma continues as one of the many issues in this case study, the child’s health continues to worsen.
The other son, twin brother Samuel, could be a potential donor to his brother in his time of need. The parents must consider this an option to saving James’s life, but they also must determine if putting Samuel’s life at risk is worth saving his brother. They also must consider the Christianity viewpoint “The case is striking because it makes clear what Christian rhetoric about “love” and “freedom”—and our culture’s rhetoric about the “gift of life”—may blur: Not every gift can properly be given by those who know themselves to be creatures rather than Creator. The body, as the place of personal presence, has its own integrity, which ought to be respected. Indeed, because we are regarded as stewards rather than owners of our bodily life, the Roman Catholic and Jewish traditions generally forbade self-mutilation. These traditions have become willing to approve the self-giving of organs or tissues for transplantation as long as the donation will not cause grave harm to the donor’s bodily life. Nonetheless, any solid organ donation such as that of heart, liver, or lung that would cause death or great harm to a living donor is not a proper work of creaturely love” (Meilaender, 2013, p. 108). The Christian viewpoint on many ethical issues remain as one of the biggest dilemma’s Christianity faces.
Christianity is regarded as a part of life for many people and they relate their beliefs to their existence and use religion in their everyday life. Their religious belief provides them with fulfillment and the ability to understand the meaning of life. The challenge that many Christians face is whether to utilize modern medicine and technology in their time of need or to trust in God. Trusting in God to heal their loved one while choosing to hold off on treatment can ultimately lead to either a miracle or devastation. The Christian should ensure that they are able to live with either outcome before hastily making the decision to hold off on medical treatment. Human life should be held to a higher standard and should not be left untreated while waiting for answered prayer. If God intended his work and power of healing alone then he wouldn’t have created healthcare workers or allowed science and medicine to have such a huge impact on our lives. This is one of the many challenges that Christians face in their struggle to stay true to their faith and religion.
Although faith and prayer are important, especially for Christian’s, the fact remains that there are often needs for other interventions. Such interventions include medical treatment and medicine. In this case study, faith and prayers to heal this child produced no results and the child’s condition continues to worsen. The family must decide whether they should allow medical treatment. Part of the treatment needed is the donation of an organ. The twin brother is a match to the patient and could donate a kidney to save his brother. The parents must decide if they should use the brother’s kidney. While delays in decision making may have caused the worsening of the situation, it is up to the parents to determine the next steps that need to be taken. Allowing prompt medical treatment while using faith and prayer will help the family make the choices that are right for their situation. Having faith in God and practicing in Christianity gives the parents the foundation and tools they need to get through the tough times in their life.
In conclusion, Christian’s believe that faith and prayer are important in many aspects of their lives including sickness and health. While healthcare worker such as physician has an obligation to their patients they also have an obligation to respect their patient’s wishes and promote autonomy. This case study not only proves there are complicated ethical issues that affect the parents, patient, and physician, but it also shows the determination and powerful belief in their religion. Finding the common ground between trusting their faith in God and doing what is right for their child is a daunting task.
References
Meilaender, G. (2013). Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Stewart-Gordon, J. (n.d.). Bioethics. Retrieved from https://www.iep.utm.edu/bioethic/
The post Phi 413 case study analysis: healing and autonomy appeared first on Online Nursing Essay.
Looking for a Similar Assignment? Order now and Get 10% Discount! Use Coupon Code "Newclient"
