Category: Professional Boundaries

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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

  • 51. Case: Confidentiality and Privacy

    Joanne Baker, a nurse practitioner in a small community, prescribed a partial opiate agonist to a young man, Brian, for treatment of prescription opiate dependence. Brian is talented and plays on the same soccer team as Joanne’s son. Three weeks later, Brian is found unresponsive after an overdose of opiates, requiring intubations and medical evacuation…

    View Case Study: 51. Case: Confidentiality and Privacy

  • 50. Case: Overlapping Relationships

    During a routine physical examination at your rural practice, one of your teenage patients shares that he has seen another teenage patient using cocaine at your neighbour’s house. Some Values and Ethics Issues to Consider

    View Case Study: 50. Case: Overlapping Relationships

  • 49. Case: Reality Check?

    A clerk and resident are frustrated after a morning of taking histories from and doing physical examinations of patients referred to the GI Clinic. As you (the attending clinic gastroenterologist) are going over the morning’s work with them, the clerk and resident complain that most of the patients seem to have less clinically significant symptoms…

    View Case Study: 49. Case: Reality Check?

  • 48. Case: Shared Experience

    You have recently started working as an RN in cardiology at the local pediatric health centre. One of the first cases you are involved with hits a little close to home. It involves a 2-year old patient named Kira who has a congenital cardiac abnormality. The clinical circumstances are similar to what you experienced with…

    View Case Study: 48. Case: Shared Experience

  • 47. Case: Collegial Responsibilities

    You are a pediatric critical care specialist working in the ICU taking care of a newborn infant who suffered a severe, prolonged reduction in blood flow to his brain at the time of birth. The consulting neurologist has indicated that the infant’s prognosis for functional neurological recovery is very poor in the unlikely event that…

    View Case Study: 47. Case: Collegial Responsibilities

  • 46. Case: Team Work?

    Judy, who had worked as a senior social worker in a mental health setting for 12 years, was hired as a team social worker in a community health care organization. Shirley, one of the team RNs, perceived Judy as hesitant and ineffective in patient care planning meetings. Other team members also found Judy to be…

    View Case Study: 46. Case: Team Work?

  • 43. Case: What’s My Responsibility?

    You’ve been a physician at the local hospital for a number of years and greatly enjoy your practice. You get the chance to see a range of patients and have worked closely with a variety of community members to facilitate the development of support networks for patients after they leave the hospital. Recently, in response…

    View Case Study: 43. Case: What’s My Responsibility?

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