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6565 Week 2 Discussion: Ethical Challenges in Healthcare for Practicing NPs There are several ethical issues related to treating or providing medical care to a family member, a relative, or oneself. In most case scenarios, caregivers are forced to provide care to their family. However, the American Medical Association's code of medical ethics provides that physicians should not treat themselves or members of their immediate families (Anyanwu et al., 2014). In this paper, the ethical dilemmas related to a nurse practitioner providing care to her daughter will be analyzed. Case Study Mrs. ABC needed medications for her sore throat. She tried to contact her physician for an appointment but could not get an appointment for that week. She had a business trip scheduled for the same day; therefore, she could not wait for the appointment. She decided to seek help from her mother, who is a nurse practitioner. Mrs. ABC begged her mother to prescribe an antibiotic because her 5-year-old had been recently treated for strep infection. Her mother prescribed an antibiotic, despite a rapid strep test being negative. 48 hours later, the DNA probe test confirmed that the patient was negative for strep.
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Explanation on Whether NPs Should Treat Family Members According to the medical codes of ethics, care providers should not treat or provide care to their close family members or themselves. However, there are situations in which they can provide care. For example, in emergencies, care providers can give emergency care before other practitioners are available to treat them (Fromme, 2012). In addition, there could be instances where the doctor is the only available person who could provide specialized care to the patient at that particular moment. Nonetheless, providing care to family members has been discouraged due to various reasons. First, it is expected that the informal relationship will contribute to compromised care, poor history taking, assessment, and physical examination. Also, the close relations can lead to carrying out unnecessary tests, overlooking certain investigations or procedures that may inflict pain and not diagnosing conditions known to have a poor prognosis (Anyanwu et al., 2014). Lastly, it may compromise on proper record keeping and documentation for future reference. However, there is lack of evidence to support the negative impacts or risks related to treating a close family member (Gold et al., 2014). Ethical Dilemmas in the Situation From the case study, the first dilemma is whether it is justifiable to provide care or not considering the close family relations. If the mother had refused to attend to her daughter, it would affect their relationship. Also, the mother is obliged to act in the best interest of her patient by providing care acting according to the preference of the patient. In addition, there is a dilemma on whether to prescribe an antibiotic or not, while knowing the harm it can cause through developing antibiotic resistance. The patient already had a negative strep test even after exposure to it through her daughter.
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Laws Regarding NP’s Treating Themselves or Family Members Most states do not have laws put in place to restrict care providers from treating their family members or themselves. However, the Texas Board of Nursing has laws that prohibit providing care to a person whom the care provider has a close relationship with (Bon.texas.gov, 2018). Other states may lack such laws, but have restrictions on the care provided in such scenarios.
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References Anyanwu, E. B., Abedi, H. O., & Onohwakpor, E. A. (2014). Ethical issues in treating self and family members. American Journal of Public Health Research, 2(3), 99-102. Bon.texas.gov. (2018). Texas Board of Nursing - practice - position statements. Retrieved from http://www.bon.texas.gov/practice_bon_position_statements.asp#15.22 Fromme, E. K. (2012). Requests for care from family members. Virtual Mentor, 14(5), 368. Gold K. J., Goldman E. B., Kamil L. H., Walton S., Burdette T. G., Moseley K. L. (2014). Ethical challenges in treating friends and family. New England Journal of Medicine, 371, 2436-2437. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1412844.
