The Family Wanted A Do Not Resuscitate Order The Doctor Did Not By Caroline Chen

1701 Words7 Pages

Code of Ethics - DNR Order Ethics is the guiding principle that is followed for making medical decisions within healthcare. In nursing, the code of ethics is the ethical standard in which nursing should be practiced. As a nurse there are many roles that they fulfill in a healthcare setting. In the article “The Family Wanted a Do Not Resuscitate Order the Doctor Did Not” written by Caroline Chen, it describes a situation where the code of ethics was disregarded by members of the healthcare team. In 2018, Andy Jurtschenko went into surgery for a heart transplant at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey. Prior to the surgery, the patient let his kids know that “he didn’t want to be a burden on them” if something …show more content…

The first ethical mistake that was made was the DNR status being deflected by the team. In “ANA’s Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements”, it states the right to self-determination in Provision 1.4. This provision guides nurses to know that “patients have the moral and legal right to determine what will be done with and to their own person”. The role of the nurse is to be an advocate for the patients’ wishes (ANA, 2015). There should have been a push to have the DNR signed the first time the family asked for it and not deflected (Chen, 2019). The nurse's role in this would be to advocate for the patient in granting the order and respecting the patient's right to …show more content…

There was no consideration for the harm the patients received due to this unethical practice. The hospital was only worried about a potential $2 million dollar cost if they were cited for needing improvement (Chen, 2019). The more improvement a hospital is cited to need the less money they receive. There was no worry of the suffering the patient and the family would feel by ignoring a DNR order. Orders like this help a family from distress of not knowing what to do in these situations. The patient made his wishes known before the surgery and his family followed through. There was no right for the hospital to try and influence their decision as it is against the