Question

Ruth Rigid Case Study

Ruth Rigid, RN began her career in home health care some 7 years ago after having worked as an assistant head nurse on a busy medical-surgical unit for almost 10 years at a Veterans’ Administration (VA) hospital. Ruth has proved to be a hard-working, very responsible and reliable home health care nurse with excellent assessment and nursing skills. In general, she communicates well with patients and provides a high level of care to the patients she is assigned. Ruth has a reputation among the other nurses working in the agency as being competent and hard working, but rather inflexible when it comes to the interpretation of protocols, procedures, and standing orders. This “by-the-book” philosophy is an essential part of Ruth’s psychological makeup and it pervades all aspects of her life including her religious beliefs and value system.   This past week a new patient has been referred to the agency for home care. He is a 38-year-old admitted homosexual male who is HIV positive and is in the terminal stages of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). He (along with his mother and father) had decided to spend his final days at home rather than in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). Because of the rural location of this agency, this is the first AIDS patient referral it has received. After consideration of the various qualifications and experience levels of the nurses available, as well as their patient loads, the director of the agency decides that Ruth would be the most qualified nurse to care for this patient. The agency director places the referral form and chart on Ruth’s desk with a note to see the patient before the end of the week. Later that day Ruth returns from her morning visits, she discovers the referral and chart on her desk. After reviewing the chart and referral form, she storms into the director’s office, throws the chart down on the director’s desk and states in a loud voice: “I cannot take care of a patient who has AIDS. My religion teaches that homosexuality is a sin against nature and God and I believe that AIDS is a punishment for the sin!”

1.If you were the director, how would you handle the situation?

2.Cite specific ethical principles to justify your choice.

3.What statements in the Code of Ethics for Nurses apply to this case study?

Aiken T. (2004) Legal Ethical and Moral Issues in Nursing. 2nd Ed. Philadelphia, PA: Davis

Answer 1

Being a director ,it is the duty and responsibility to assign the most appropriate staff to a patient depending upon the need and efficacy.It is the sole responsibility of the nurse to take care of the patient which is her moral duty.

The director should first explain the conditions to the nurse so that the nurse will not act furious in later stage

2)This can be justified by the ethical principles of " Respect for Patient " It is the one which as to be followed by all health care providers and staffs to handle all type of patients

3)Respect for human dignity, care of patient in health care needs,professional behavior .can be applied to this case study