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Cast Study of a Quadriplegic

The patient, Albert Green, is a 21 year old male who has been quadriplegic for 18 months as a result of an accident. During acute and rehabilitative care following the accident, the patient appeared to make progress in overcoming bouts of depression (about his quadriplegic condition) and grief (for a brother killed in the same accident) which were deemed to be reactive an appropriate. Although anxious upon release from rehabilitative care, the patient expressed confidence about his future and looked forward to continuing his college education.

Within three months of returning to college, however, Green became disinterested in his studies, dissatisfied with his physical dependence on others, and angered with his friends who spent less time with him because his physical constraints limited the scope of his activities. Green withdrew from social intercourse, reduced his food intake, and experienced a marked weight loss.

On a visit to the clinic, the patient confided to nurse Caron O'Neill that he intended to starve himself to death because he did not consider his present circumstances to be worth the effort. Green refused to discuss any potential interventions with the nurse, and added that any recommendations made by Ms O'Neill would be considered by him to be violations of both his rights and his confidentiality. Ms O'Neill is confident that a psychiatric evaluation would find Green cognitively and emotionally competent, and able to make an informed evaluation of his own quality of life.

Ms O'Neill is confronted with the necessity to decide what actions she should take in light of the patient's avowal to starve himself to death. Her decision must be made within the context of ethical principles, which in nursing include the following:

1. Beneficence: Beneficence requires a nurse to do what is good (Milner, 1993, p. 23). Elements of doing what is goodproviding treatments and medications, educating, assisting, suppor...

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Cast Study of a Quadriplegic. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:06, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1683764.html