Category: Duty to Provide Care

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  • 55. Case: What is My Obligation?

    A family physician in a small, remote community assesses a patient, who is a local schoolteacher, as developing a post-partum psychosis. He feels he lacks adequate training or experience to manage her care. He recommends she seek treatment at a distant large mental health centre but she refuses to travel to the centre because of…

    View Case Study: 55. Case: What is My Obligation?

  • 54. Case: Professional Role

    While doing a weekday home visit to an elderly patient, a VON nurse in a small community finds the patient’s son at home. The patient has mentioned that her son teaches at the local elementary school, but he has never been present during any of the nurse’s previous visits to the house. On a weekday…

    View Case Study: 54. Case: Professional Role

  • 52. Case: Community Values

    A patient in your rural community that you have treated for COPD for several years missed her last two appointments. When you speak with her after church, she indicated her husband lost his job as a logger and no longer has family health insurance to cover the cost of the treatments. She refuses to accept…

    View Case Study: 52. Case: Community Values

  • 33. Case: Ethical Advertising?

    A hospital has placed billboards throughout the region with the following statement:  “Are You a Victim of Sexual or Domestic Assault?  Come to Warman Center Where We Will Treat You Immediately. Our Staff of Counsellors and Providers Have Received Special Sensitivity Training in This Area. You Are Our Main Concern.” A twenty-five-year-old college student presents…

    View Case Study: 33. Case: Ethical Advertising?

  • 32. Case: To Report or Not

    Dr. B is the epidemiologist and director of infection control for an academic health centre. The reportable disease statutes and regulations in Dr. B’s province specify that hospitals and other health care facilities throughout the province are required to track nosocomial infections (infections not present in patients prior to their admission to the hospital) and…

    View Case Study: 32. Case: To Report or Not

  • 31. Case: Stakeholders’ Role in Decision-Making

    This case concerns parental involvement in decision-making related to maintaining a residential facility for adolescent patients. Due to a lack of sustainable funding, in consultation with the operations team, the facility board has made a decision to close the facility. The requestor indicated that the parents of the adolescent residents were concerned because they felt…

    View Case Study: 31. Case: Stakeholders’ Role in Decision-Making

  • 7. Case: Unknown Risks

    A person who was a first responder at an accident comes into the Emergency Room with blood/body fluid on himself. The patient who was involved in the accident was immediately sent to Halifax where he later passed away. His family had refused to allow his blood to be drawn for testing. The first responder is…

    View Case Study: 7. Case: Unknown Risks

  • 6. Case: To Feed or Not to Feed?

    You receive a call on the ethics line about a patient’s relative (next-of-kin and legal decision-maker) force-feeding her sister who is a patient on the unit (pushing food into the patient’s mouth and then holding her mouth closed, pinching her nose, etc. until she swallows). Apparently, this was not an uncommon approach to getting her…

    View Case Study: 6. Case: To Feed or Not to Feed?

  • 5. Case: Caring for a “Difficult” Patient

    A female patient in her mid-forties has been on the GI service for several months now due to severe Crohn’s Disease, which has left her with multiple draining abdominal fistuli. She has recently moved out of the province but her condition could not be treated adequately in the local hospital so she was transferred back…

    View Case Study: 5. Case: Caring for a “Difficult” Patient

  • 1. Case: Sensitive Information

    John is a young man with a traumatic spinal cord injury that has resulted in paraplegia. He is leaving the rehab hospital on a weekend pass and has confided to his chaplain that he intends to kill himself. The chaplain calls the ethics service for assistance. Some Values and Ethics Issues to Consider 

    View Case Study: 1. Case: Sensitive Information

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