Reflective Journal

Reflective Journal

Introduction

This issue involves a patient I was assigned to take care of who was suffering from vulvar cancer. The patient has lately been experiencing acute pain and the doctors at the hospital have decided to call a meeting with the family of the patient. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss a future course of action for the patient in collaboration with the family. Since the patient has shown no improvement and overall signs of health have deteriorated, doctors would now present the family with a number of alternatives in order to reach an informed decision based on a consensus between all parties. The family was informed about the condition of the patient and as planned, the doctors provided the husband of the patient with options such as palliative care in the hospital, continuing with the current mode of treatment or discharge the patient to nursing home. Since the patient needs constant addressing to the wound, which is only possible in a hospital. The husband and their daughter, naturally, began to cry and after a brief consultation agreed to keep the patient in palliative care in the hospital. This was agreed upon by the doctors as it was a decision made by the family members of the patient.

During the course of the meeting, I could feel the emotion and the signs of helplessness that both the daughter and the husband were going through. I began to think of how much this period of pain of a loved one would impact their lives. The family members had to make a tough decision as to how they wanted the patient to spend the final days of her life. I could not help but imagine the turmoil that they must be going through. Their based was based on the idea that they wanted the patient to remain in care for as long as there is. The feeling of knowing the inevitable that they would lose their family member was evident. There was a flood of emotions especially from the daughter (Ard & Valiga, 2009).

My observations during this meeting were that how the doctors had listened to the patient's family and allowed them to take to make the decision that they felt comfortable with. This accounted for the ethical issues that could have surfaced if the decision was taken solely by the doctors without consulting the family. I could also see ...