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8. Case: Who Should Decide?
View Case Study: 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…
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6. Case: To Feed or Not to Feed?
View Case Study: 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…
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4. Case: Expectations for Care
View Case Study: 4. Case: Expectations for CareNed is an elderly patient with relatively advanced dementia who is recovering from surgery to repair a hip fracture. He spends most of every 24-hour period screaming unless someone familiar sits with him. Staff members on the unit are becoming increasingly frustrated and stressed. The unit manager has received numerous complaints, verbal and written, from…
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3. Case: Superbugs
View Case Study: 3. Case: SuperbugsJeannette Cutler is an 83-year old woman admitted to hospital after falling and breaking her arm. She reports that she fell because she passed out, and so further investigations are being conducted. She has mild dementia but is otherwise seemingly healthy. Upon admission, she screens positive for MRSA and is subject to strict isolation procedures…


