| Title | From means to ends: artificial nutrition and hydration. | | Author(s) | Monturo C, Hook K | | Institution | West Chester University College of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, 222C Sturzebecker Health Sciences Center, West Chester, PA 19383, USA. | | Source | Nurs Clin North Am 2009 Dec; 44(4):505-15. | | MeSH | Attitude to Health
Codes of Ethics
Decision Making
Enteral Nutrition
Ethical Analysis
Ethical Theory
Family
Fluid Therapy
Humans
Knowledge
Logic
Morals
Nurse's Role
Nursing Theory
Patient Rights
Personal Autonomy
Principle-Based Ethics
Symbolism
Terminal Care
United States
Withholding Treatment
| | Abstract | The withdrawal, withholding, or implementation of life-sustaining treatments such as artificial nutrition and hydration challenge nurses on a daily basis. To meet these challenges, nurses need the composite skills of moral and ethical discernment, practical wisdom and a knowledge base that justifies reasoning and actions that support patient and family decision making. Nurses' moral knowledge develops through experiential learning, didactic learning, and deliberation of ethical principles that merge with moral intuition, ethical codes, and moral theories. Only when a nurse becomes skilled and confident in gathering empiric and ethical knowledge can he or she fully act as a moral agent in assisting families faced with making highly emotional decisions regarding the provision, withholding, or withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration. | | Language | eng | | Pub Type(s) | Journal Article
Review
| | PubMed ID | 19850186 |
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