Book Description
This book lets the reader listen to the voices of home health care nurses as they pose the ethical questions they encounter in their work. It will prove useful for practicing nurses, social workers, nursing school instructors, and home care agencies. The cases presented in each chapter are fictionalized situations based on interviews conducted with home health care nurses in both hospital-sponsored and private agencies, in hospices, and in urban and rural settings. Home health care is an increasingly important venue for nursing, as advances in medical technology and cost-containing measures shift the ill population from hospital to home. In this practice setting, nurses voice ethical concerns that are importantly different from the ethical questions most common in hospital nursing practice. Due to the special circumstances of home health care and the kind of nursing that is required, attention is given to different strategies for effective ethical responses. Each chapter of the book is devoted to one of the main areas of concern for home health care nurses. Focusing on specific cases, it offers analysis and discussion of the ethical issues, cites legal requirements where relevant, and summarizes ethical criteria and practical strategies. The discussion of these cases is not intended to be comprehensive, but to serve as a useful stimulus for further in-depth discussion of the issues. The initial cases from each chapter are discussed in the conclusion. The goal is for the reader to develop a keen sensitivity to ethical questions and skill in the critical thinking process that leads to careful, reasoned decisions about what to do. Reflection on the issues and attention to the reasoning process can aid nurses, clients, families, and other caregivers as they confront the emotion-laden decisions of home health care ethics. Additional topics covered are patients’ rights, end of life decisions, rights of caregivers, and how to identify ethical issues concerning these matters.

FROM THE PUBLISHER