Case Study 4

Case study:

You are the only staff nurse working at a rural health clinic. There are no other healthcare clinics within two hours. The provider at the clinic provides a wide range of care and procedures, including elective abortions. A patient presents to the clinic 13 weeks pregnant and requesting an elective abortion. The provider requests that you assist with this procedure.

Use the case above to answer the following questions:

Type your answers into the text boxes below. The box will expand as you type.

What are your underlying personal beliefs as they relate to this case? You do not need to defend your beliefs – this is more to help you reflect on what your moral and ethical beliefs are and how they relate to patient care.

Personally, I believe that every individual has the right to choose whether or not they want to have an abortion. I feel that it is their personal decision and they should get to choose what they want to do. Of course I am sympathetic, however, I believe that it is their choice on how they want to proceed. In this particular case, it would be difficult for me to allow the procedure to go through, however it is not my life and it is not my baby. I feel that if one wishes to abort their child, they should at least do it before the fifth week, before if the baby’s heart and organs start growing. (Pregnancy week by week, n.d.). In this scenario, the baby is pretty much almost full grown, which is why it would be especially difficult for me.

Based on your answer above, how do you proceed? If you find that you are ethically or morally opposed to abortion, what other options might you find to help your patient receive care? How would you discuss this with your patient in a way that is neutral and unbiased? Make sure to reference the seven ethical principles for decision making and the ANA code of ethics to support your answers.

Although I feel that every person is entitled to an abortion, if I opposed to it, one of the options I would...