Reference no: EM133921647
Question
Case 1-4 When Promoting the Patient's Well-Being Infringes on Basic Human Rights
Sandra Kaplan is a nurse working part time on a psychiatric care unit specializing in treating teenage patients with anorexia nervosa. She is particularly concerned about the treatment program for Cassandra Miller, a 16-year-old female with a long history of 20 Chapter 1 Values in Health and Illness emotional problems, beginning at age 6. The unit's treatment plan centers on a reward and punishment system for eating behaviors that result in weight gain. Patients are closely watched at all times (even when in the bathrooms), and their eating and physical activities are closely monitored. Privileges, such as watching TV, phoning friends, wearing favorite clothes, listening to CD players, and the like, are withdrawn from a patient if the patient does not gain weight. Cassandra has been in the unit for 3 weeks. She is not responding well to the treatment plan and has continued to lose weight. She has lost all privileges on the unit, is withdrawing more and more into herself each day, and does not seem to care about the continued weight loss. If she does not try to eat more, gain weight, and participate in her treatment plan, her parents will be asked for permission to restrain Cassandra so she might be fed intravenously. Miss Kaplan believes that, under most situations, people have a right to determine their own weight. Cassandra's weight loss, however, is threatening her health and may, if not stopped, lead to her death. Nonetheless, Miss Kaplan hates to see patients forced into accepting the unit's treatment plan or into gaining weight. Although she agrees that Cassandra has serious emotional and, perhaps, psychologic problems that complicate her treatment for anorexia nervosa, she dislikes treating patients harshly in order to make them "well."
Discuss the moral and legal issues in this case. What rights does Cassandra have? What treatment options does Miss Kaplan have? Discuss the barriers and how to overcome patient care that infringes on basic human rights.