Advocacy on Ethical Triage and End of Life Care
This assignment is on nursing advocacy for my assigned topic (Ethical Triage and end of life care). I will attach a previous discussion I have completed on my personal leadership skills.
Here is an additional helpful link on the topic
Ethical Triage and End-of-Life Care https://www.aacn.org/policy-and-advocacy/~/link.aspx?_id=AA57E2D53B4B4CF3B0D351A02CD97AB5&_z=z
Sample Answer
Nurse Advocacy
Advocacy is one of the core competencies of a nurse, especially the nurse leaders. It is a complex concept that needs experience, knowledge, self-confidence, and courage (O’Connor, 2018). Triage in healthcare is required when there is an imbalance between needs and supplies. In situations where there are mass casualties, it is challenging to offer care for all the victims. Therefore it is essential to triage the patients depending on the pre-established priorities. The performance of triage raises critical issues because when the providers act according to the preferences, it means that patients’ interests should respect the interests of the mass victims. Physicians have to remain responsible for the wellbeing of every patient are also required to decide on the patient that should urgently get help with regard to outcome; for example, survival. As health care providers strive to provide the best care to patients, it is essential to ensure that all the patients get compassionate end-of-life care. Compassionate care is an integral part of medical care at the end of life as it soothes the dying person. The goals of such care are to prevent or relieve the suffering of the individual as much as possible and enhance the quality of care while respecting the wishes of the dying person (Akdeniz, Yardımcı & Kavukcu, 2021). This paper aims to discuss advocacy on ethical triage and end-of-life care.
Problem Statement
It is challenging for health care providers to make ethical decisions on triage and end-of-life care.
Why the Topic Is Significant To the Nurse Leaders
The health care workforce has the potential to advance services and systems to enhance health care delivery. Through nurse advocacy, the nursing profession and patient care elevate. The desire to help people restore their health is strong with the nurse advocates in all positions. Nurse leaders need to advocate for ethical triage and end-of-life care. Nurses have a responsibility to deliver care to their patients. This responsibility remains even in cases where crisis standards of care and triage are essential. Now and then, the providers are faced with hard decisions on which patient to receive care first. For example, during the Covid-19, the providers are forced to make difficult decisions under the circumstances they have never been before. It is difficult to provide the usual standards of care in every situation for patients, especially in times of crisis. The implementation of triage systems under the umbrella of crisis standards of care will change depending on the availability and demand of resources. Therefore, some decisions made in such circumstances may be unfair or immoral to the health care team and the patients.
Nurse leaders need to understand that even as the nurses and other members of the health care delivery team continue to work under pressure with high demand and low supply of resources, they must provide compassionate end-of-life care. With the communicability of COVID-19, it is very difficult to provide appropriate and of life care. Efforts to alleviate physical and emotional pain should be made even if it only involves compassionate presence, personhood recognition, and patient value.
According to the American Association of Critical Care nurses position, health care institutions have to ensure that decisions under crisis standards are fair, ethical, legal, transparent, and compassionate. Nurse leaders are responsible for ensuring that triage decisions are made collaboratively, and no individual clinician should bear this burden all alone. Effective communication is essential in decision-making is essential all the time (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2021). The nurse leaders also need to develop guidelines and education about triage and end-of-life care so that the nurse and other health care providers fully understand considerations and consequences on the same and ensure that the patients get the best care possible, especially during these unprecedented times. It is essential to develop an ethically sound framework for healthcare during public health emergencies.
The advocacy work aims to ensure that the nurses make ethical decisions on triage and end-of-life care. Ethical triage will ensure that the vulnerable populations are fairly treated under a triage system and that the health care teams, patients, and families get a clear and understandable explanation on how triage is considered and conducted. The advocacy work will make an end of life care better through incorporating palliative interventions for the end of life in the planning and implementation of crisis response plans. All the clinicians will receive debriefing and support to help them deal with moral distress when making decisions in crisis and triage situations. Generally, the advocacy work will benefit the patients, health care providers, family, and the general population. Regardless of how the providers are struggling with crisis, they will provide effective end-of-life care.
