Moral Dilemma In Occupational Therapy

Moral Dilemma

HOSPITAL:

You started your first job at a large hospital. You are assigned a patient to treat who no one wants to work with because the patient always says “NO”. The Occupational Therapy team leader tells you that you need to treat the patient because the doctor is angry that the patient has not been receiving therapy. You are told that the patient’s nurse has called to complain to the therapy department about the fact that the patient has not been receiving therapy

The case in question the Occupational Therapy staff is confronted with a patient refusing to take therapy, every patient/client has the right under the autonomy code of ethics to decide if they want to participate in their treatment plan that the doctor has set

Starting with the doctor, did the doctor explain to the patient why he recommends that the patient go to occupational therapy. It also seems like the nursing staff doesn’t know why the patient did not receive any therapy. Had the nurse known of the refusals, they could have talked to the patient to find out what the reasons for not wanting to go were. The nurse could have then taken the time to explain the therapy and stress the importance of going to the patient, as well as, try to calm any fears that the patient may have. The other problem could be that the patient does not understand what type of impact occupational therapy could have on his recovery while at the hospital or to help them recover

There are 3 OT, 2 OTAs, 3 PT, 2 PTAs, and 2 STs. This team is on the floor every day and when one of the permanent therapists is out, a different therapist from another floor floats to the rehabilitation floor. One day an OT with decades of experience comes up to work on the floor because another OT has called out. The OT that came from another floor goes and works with a patient of Indian descent. The patient holds a religious rank for his religion. The OT enters the room and begins to work on ADLs with the patient. During the session, the patient ends up having a bowel movement in the bed. Instead of cleaning the patient, this OT calls for the nurse, leaves the patient on his side without any clothing on, leaves the door open, and exposes the patient’s buttocks for anyone to see. This all happens during the patient’s therapy session. The OT says to the nurse that cleaning a patient’s buttocks is the job of the CNA and that she, the OT, will not do it. As all this is occurring, the patient is still exposed to anyone who looks in this room from the hall.

The conflict in case one deals with the fact that the Occupational therapist does not think it’s their job to clean up the patient, as a result of that, the patient got treated in a very demeaning and embarrassing manner. The behavior of the Occupational therapist is a violation to the patients’ rights for being treated with respect and dignity. By neglecting to clean