Rosalee Johnson, 72yrs, is a resident at Rose Gardens Aged Care Facility.
Rosalee Johnson, 72yrs, is a resident at Rose Gardens Aged Care Facility. This facility provides a variety of accommodation to meet the needs of the elderly in the community and Rosalee is in the Nursing Home. Rosalee and her husband of 48 years, Mario (aged 78yrs), have lived in their home together about 10Km from Rose Gardens up to 18 months ago when it became apparent Rosalee needed assistance with managing her diabetes and associated nephritis. Rosalee has limited mobility and walks with a frame, however she enjoys watching you tube documentaries on her tablet, and she also enjoys cross words and jigsaw puzzles. Rosalee’s favourite activity for the week however, is her visit from Mario every Friday at lunch time. Each weekly visit, Mario brings Rosalee a homemade meal and seasonal flowers from their home garden. Mario can only manage to visit once a week as he too has limited mobility and needs to organise community transport on a pension now that he is living alone. They are very close and have much love for each other.
Rosalee and Mario have two children together, Gina and Joseph. Joseph (43yrs) lives with his wife and 2 children and Gina (46yrs), lives with her husband of 15yrs. Gina is a Legal Guardian & Enduring Guardian for Rosalee and Mario. Kathleen is a Registered Nurse working at Rose Gardens and knows the family well as she has cared for Rosalee over the duration of her admission. She is also very familiar with Mario and his regular visits. Over Rosalee’s admission, Kathleen has seen Gina and Jo at Christmas time. Both Gina and Joe have both been noted to visit infrequently.
Two weeks ago, Gina visited on Friday instead of Mario, Kathleen was on shift and was allocated the team leader when Gina spoke to her away from Rosalee in the corridor advising her that Mario had died peacefully in his sleep at home 3 days ago. Gina told Katrina she had not yet informed the facility or anyone on the day and planned to do so as the day went on. Gina asked that no member of staff tell Rosalee that Mario had died.
She stated the reason for this was that so she could stress that Rosalee must not be told about Mario’s passing. Gina informed Kathleen that when Rosalee asked where Mario is, Gina said he had a fall at home and was in hospital. Gina expressed her fears to Kathleen that if she told her mother (Rosalee) that her father (Mario) had died, her mother would die from a broken heart. Gina told Kathleen that she planned to tell Rosalee that Mario needed to be moved into a nursing home over the next few weeks.
Kathleen said nothing for the remainder of her shift. The following week, as Kathleen put Rosalee’s lunch in her room, Rosalee said to Kathleen…
“I am worried, I know something is wrong, Mario would never not visit without calling me. Where is he?”
Kathleen approaches the room window to open the curtains as she prepares to respond……
1: Clearly define the problem, then objectively note the ethical issue that registered nurse Kathleen must address in responding to Rosalee.
2: Examine the legal and ethical principles that apply to the case study.
3: Identify 2 options (courses of action) available to Kathleen in addressing the ethical problem identified in question 1. For each option describe how they apply to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics for Nurses (2012).
4: Reflect on the options identified in question 3 and choose ONE as a course of action you would follow if you were a registered nurse in the same position as Kathleen. In your answer, be sure to discuss your rationale as to why you would take this particular course of action in this situation and apply knowledge from the literature to inform your answer.
5: Conclude with a brief summary of how you might feel in this situation and what some of the drivers are that raise these feelings.