Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardEthical Practice

Match each complex clinical scenario on the left with the specific ethical concept or phenomenon it best illustrates on the right.

  • An intensive care nurse experiences persistent guilt because severe staffing shortages consistently prevent the delivery of comprehensive, evidence-based care to assigned clients.Moral Distress
  • A novice nurse witnesses a senior attending physician intentionally ignoring a competent client's advance directive, but feels entirely powerless to intervene due to rigid hospital hierarchy.Moral Outrage
  • An interdisciplinary team struggles to decide whether to honor a surrogate's demand for aggressive resuscitation on a profoundly brain-damaged client, or to transition to palliative care.Ethical Dilemma
  • A provider instructs the nursing staff to withhold a terminal prognosis from an alert, competent client, arguing that the news would cause the client unnecessary psychological harm.Paternalism

Answer

Staffing shortages preventing known proper care matches Moral Distress; witnessing a violation without power matches Moral Outrage; conflicting paths of resuscitation versus palliative care matches Ethical Dilemma; withholding a diagnosis to prevent perceived harm matches Paternalism.
Each clinical scenario accurately represents a highly specific ethical concept. Staffing constraints causing an inability to provide known proper care is moral distress. Witnessing unethical acts while feeling powerless is moral outrage. Conflicting ethical choices with no ideal outcome form an ethical dilemma. Overriding autonomy for the client's perceived 'good' is paternalism.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the scenario involving the intensive care nurse and staffing shortages.
The nurse knows the right care to provide but is constrained by systemic issues.
Identifying that internal knowledge of the right action conflicts with external institutional constraints defines moral distress.
2
Analyze the scenario involving the novice nurse and the attending physician.
The nurse is not directly participating in the unethical act but observes it and feels powerless to change the outcome.
Witnessing unethical behavior by others while feeling helpless constitutes moral outrage.
3
Analyze the scenario involving the interdisciplinary team and the surrogate.
The team must choose between two conflicting ethical paths (beneficence vs. nonmaleficence/autonomy of surrogate).
When multiple ethical principles are in conflict and there is no perfect solution, it is an ethical dilemma.
4
Analyze the scenario involving the provider withholding a diagnosis.
The provider is deciding what is 'best' for the client by restricting their fundamental right to information.
Overriding client autonomy with the intent of protecting them from harm is the definition of paternalism.

Key Concept

Ethical Phenomena and Decision-Making Frameworks
Rate this question

Topics

Ethical Practice

More questions from this topic