Ethical Dilemmas In The Intensive Care Case Study

The purpose of the article, “Ethical Dilemmas in the Intensive Care Unit,” is to discuss two important ethical issues that health care workers in the intensive care units face. The first dilemma is treating a nonverbal patient, the second being medical futility. I chose this article because I intend to go into the critical care field once I finish nursing school. I also felt the topic of medical futility was of great important with recent headlines in the news regarding Brittany Maynard. Critical Care health workers are facing a growing patient population; this increase in patients leads to an increase in ethical issues and dilemmas surrounding the critical care field. The article begins by discussing the death rate among critical care

“Medical futility is a complex concept as there is no universally accepted definition.” (Chow, RN, ANP-BC, 2014) Futility was found among the group of colleagues on the ICU floor to mean a considerable use of resources without hope for recovery. The most common answers as to why medically futile care was provided were due to demands from family members and disagreements among team members regarding their plan of action. A major concern in these situations is that family members are left to make decisions without any health care knowledge. Communication is key here; critical care team members and family members have to try to overcome the difficult situation they have been placed in to figure out what is the best plan. The palliative care team should have been brought in sooner in L.J.’s case because on top of the lack of communication, “the case happened at the beginning of an academic year when new medical residents and fellows were just becoming oriented in the hospital system.” (Chow, RN, ANP-BC,

Death is a frequent visitor of the intensive care unit; patients in this area are at the very peak of their illnesses, many of them being nonverbal. As well as figuring out how to communicate with your patients, one might also have to accept the fact that the case could be medically futile and nothing can be done other than make the patient as comfortable as you can for the remainder of their stay. Recent news headlines have brought this topic closer to home, often if you are not in the health care field or studying to enter the health care field you may hear about these topics on television or the radio but they do not take up place in your conscious thoughts. Hearing about Brittany Maynard made me stop and ask myself what would I do, if I were in her shoes, or if I was a nurse in the hospital that was treating her, and the answer is I do not know. Ethical dilemmas such as this are complicated and there is often not a black and white answer, we live in the gray areas, it is about finding what is right for that patient and being able to accept the fact that their beliefs may not be the same as your