The old get equal care: Myth or reality

Abstract

A national ethics survey was conducted of all registered nurses participating in post-basic specialisation nursing courses in Israel over a one-year period (1994-95) to identify ethical situations which confront Israeli nurses caring for patients of different age groups and in different clinical settings. This study compares the responses of those nurses caring for elderly patients (60 years or older) with those caring for adult patients in other age groups. Nurses caring for the elderly reported encountering ethical dilemmas in 16 out of 37 situations presented to them, more than in the other adult patient age groups. The most frequent dilemmas were concerning mistaken or questionable treatment, patient-family conflict, patient referral to an institution or discharge to the home where the family is incapable of caring for him, offensive behaviour by caregivers and physical restraint of the patient for staff convenience. It is recommended that nursing ethics intervention programmes be established to promote ethical decision making and patients' rights.

Nurses' Perceptions of Ethical Issues in the Care of Older People

“…However, the World Health Organization defines older people for their purposes as people aged 60 years or over. 3 Three of the studies included in the review defined older people by reference to the World Heath Organization's minimum age, [4][5][6] two used criteria of over 65 7 and over 75 8 , while the remaining six studies made no reference to a specific age.…”

Nurses’ codes of ethics in practice and education: a review of the literature

“…The least known statements were related to the nurse’s responsibility towards other nurses and authorities (41, 42). In other studies about 30% of the nurses were able to recall correctly statements from the codes (44, 53). Nursing students had better knowledge of the codes than practicing nurses, perhaps because of improved teaching of ethics.…”

“…Knowledge and use of the codes in practice and education. These studies dealt with nurses’ knowledge of the content of the codes (41–45), nurses’ knowledge of the codes as an indicator of professional behaviour (46–48), nurses’ use of the codes, and barriers to their use (49–60), and nurses’ ethical behaviour related to living up to the expectations of the codes (61).…”

“…In two other studies only 30% of nurses used the codes to support their decision‐making. The most predominant factor in shaping their ethical attitudes was their own family (44, 53). In a Korean study the nursing students used the preamble and some of the clauses of the codes in their decision‐making (54).…”

Balancing different expectations in ethically difficult situations while providing community home health care services: a focused ethnographic approach

“…There are demands from the law [45, 46], the next-of-kin [47, 48] and patients themselves that the care must be provided and delivered in a prescribed manner. The demands from the system level are legal obligations to deliver health care in accordance with certain rules and codes of ethics, i.e., to provide equal, dignified and good care and to consider the patient’s self-determination in the care situation [43, 44, 49, 50]. These demands seemed to be difficult to fulfil and staff took issue with them due to the lack of resources.…”