Week 7: Ethical Dilemma Case Study
Assignment Content
Analyze the case scenario below. Case Study, Chapter 18, Ethical Theories and Principles (McEwen & Wills, 2023)
Jane Goodley, RN has started her MSN program and has been studying ethical theories for the current week’s assignment. She works in obstetrics and sometimes the delivery room. One evening she is called to cover in the delivery room when the evening nurse could not come in for her shift. About halfway through the shift, a young couple, Arturo and Corida DeMartines, arrived stating that the young mother had begun to have strong, regular contractions, but it was still several weeks before the baby was due. Later in the evening full contractions resumed and the baby was delivered spontaneously into the labor room bed just as the on-call obstetrician and the Neonatal Nurse Specialist arrived. Jane had called the obstetrician on call, Dr. Riley, and the Neonatal Nurse Specialist, Boris Gage, DNS. Jane had wrapped the baby in a sterile towel and brought her to the mother’s chest to keep her safe, just as the neonatal nurse arrived.
The baby, a girl, was pink, was breathing, and had a heart rate of 142. The baby was weighed and found at 490 GM, and Dr. Riley, the obstetrician on call judged that, from development, the child was about 24-25 weeks gestation. Dr. Gage, the neonatal nurse agreed and provided respiratory support to the child. The Neonatal Nurse Specialist, Gage, called the couple’s choice of pediatrician and the on-call obstetrician, Dr. Riley, who delivered the baby, called the couple’s obstetrician, Dr. Spartan.
The couple’s obstetrician, Dr. Spartan, an older gentleman, is concerned that a child so small will become a financial and child-rearing burden for parents so young and inexperienced. The neonatal nurse, Gage, and the obstetrical hospitalist, Riley, disagreed and both spoke for transfer to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Still, Dr. Spartan maintained that the child was too young to survive without great physical and mental decrements. Her care and treatment, he presumed, will be long and expensive and she may still be disabled in the end. Dr. Spartan went to the young couple to discourage them from seeking to treat the child because of its presumed future.
The young mother was distraught: “You mean to just let my baby die?” She cried! The young father also was distraught and became tearful that his child meant so little to the physician. Then Dr. Spartan stated that in fact the child may not even be alive by this time and that in the end they would thank him for letting her go to the angels.
Consider the following in your analysis:
- Is this an ethical issue?
- Get the facts relevant to the case. What is known? What is not known? Who are the stakeholders?
- Clarify values & legal issues a. personal and b. professional (ANA Code of Ethics)
- Verbalize the problem
- Identify & evaluate possible courses of action & their implications.
- Negotiate a plan for action & implement
- Act and Reflect on the Outcome & Evaluate the plan over time
Be sure to use at least 2 scholarly references. Please note that the PowerPoint attached below as it provides examples of using the aforementioned ethical decision-making model to assist you! You may present this assignment as a paper, a PowerPoint with notes, or a narrated PowerPoint presentation. Submit your analysis in the original file format (.DOCX, .PPTX, etc.). PDF file submissions will not be accepted. Be sure to use APA format and include references.
Word Count: 600-700
No. of Pages: 4