Category: Professional Competence

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  • 101. Case: A Question from Family About Outcomes

    You are caring for a patient following a severe stroke. The attending physician has been very clear with the family that it is unlikely that the patient will survive and that, if he does, it will be with very significant impairments. Still, the family takes any movement or facial change as an indication that he…

    View Case Study: 101. Case: A Question from Family About Outcomes

  • 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?

  • 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

  • 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?

  • 45. Case: Un/Reasonable Expectations?

    It’s one of those days that you don’t look forward to as a manager. You have two complaints about staff that need to be dealt with, and it seems that these types of issues are increasing. The first complaint is from Ann about what was posted on another staff member’s social networking page.  Ann visited…

    View Case Study: 45. Case: Un/Reasonable Expectations?

  • 22. Case: Double Effect?

    The following call comes in to the ethics line: “Hi. It’s Celine from Oncology. We have a patient here who is in the end stages of lung cancer and is in a lot of pain. The patient and his family are strongly Catholic. The patient’s pain doesn’t seem to be well-controlled. But the family won’t…

    View Case Study: 22. Case: Double Effect?

  • 15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?

    Sara Thornton, an unemployed 19-year old woman, lives with her 28 year old sister, Fran, and Fran’s boyfriend, Alan. Both sisters were diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in their mid-adolescence. They are both estranged from their alcoholic mother, the only living parent. Fran has learned to manage her illness reasonably well through lifestyle changes, participation…

    View Case Study: 15. Case: Acceptable Judgement?

  • 8. Case: Who Should Decide?

    This case concerns a 35-year-old developmentally delayed female patient (functional age about 5 years old); her mother is her legal guardian. The patient tested positive for a BRCA gene mutation. Her mother is concerned that her daughter may develop ovarian cancer and wants her to have preventive surgery. Her physician does not believe this is…

    View Case Study: 8. Case: Who Should Decide?

  • 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?

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