The healthcare profession is filled with ethical issues which require good leadership to make the right decision. However, the decision may directly impact the patient’s quality of care, moral perspective, or clinical relationships. Therefore, good leadership is essential in ensuring that ethical decisions are taken. In one instance this week, I faced a case requiring me to make an ethical decision whereby a patient’s family members were requesting me to withhold medical information from a patient to protect his wellbeing. This was an ethical dilemma because patients have the right to know their medical information, no matter how bad or good. However, I believed that sharing information with the patient against the family culture would have a devastating effect on the patient’s emotional health. In such a case, I had to use my leadership skills of integrity and honesty because ANA advocates for truth-telling to a patient. Therefore, I had to tell the patient the truth about their medical condition, although it was against the family’s advice. This shows that leadership skills like honesty and sincerity are essential in nursing.
Another ethical patient-oriented service that I faced on the fourth day of the week was resource allocation. Healthcare providers’ choices regarding resource allocation are essential because they determine health outcomes. Making some choices or not acting at all determines the patient’s health outcomes, whether positive or negative. Some decisions based on a fair distribution of resources can bring positive impacts, such as improved care; on the other hand, poor decisions may bring negative impacts, including death. Therefore, healthcare leadership helps greatly in making correct and fair choices regarding resource allocation. An example is whether patients suffering from COVID-19 should be prioritized over others. While COVID-19 is a global pandemic and lack of medical attention may lead to the death of patients, it does not automatically mean that it should be prioritized over another killer disease. Therefore, if a patient has mild symptoms of CVOID-19, he should not be prioritized before another patient with a more serious disease such as stroke. This is because a person suffering from a stroke needs quicker medical attention than someone with mild COVID-19. Therefore, good leadership is required to ensure that correct and fair decisions are taken regarding allocating resources to the patients.
Finally, there are ethical issues which are related to physician-assisted suicide of patients. While in some states like California, it is legal to help patients to die, it is still illegal in most parts of the USA. There is been growing momentum of assisted physician suicide to the increasing number of aging baby boomers in the USA. This is in line with the principle of “do not harm,” whereby they argue that providing assisted suicide for patients who are dying or facing fatal illness or suffering is important. I had a patient who had been suffering from cancer for the last eight months of the year. Despite the physical pain that she was experiencing, her family had spent almost three-quarters of their fortune treating her, although she showed no signs of improving. The patient requested physician-assisted suicide; however, I could not provide it because although she had finished six months of treatment and was likely to die later, the state had not yet passed the law. To make such a decision, a registered nurse requires professional leadership values to know the state’s relevant laws.