Nurse leaders’ role in medical assistance in dying: A relational ethics approach

Recent changes to the Criminal Code of Canada have resulted in the right of competent adult Canadians to request medical assistance in dying (MAID). Healthcare professionals now can participate if the individual meets specific outlined criteria. There remains confusion and lack of knowledge about th...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Thiele, Tracy (Author) ; Dunsford, Jennifer (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2019
In: Nursing ethics
Year: 2019, Volume: 26, Issue: 4, Pages: 993-999
Further subjects:B topic areas
B philosophical perspectives / theory
B relational ethics
B care ethics / ethics of care
B management / ethics and leadership
B long-term conditions
B clinical ethics
B nurse leaders
B assisted dying
B Areas of practice
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Summary:Recent changes to the Criminal Code of Canada have resulted in the right of competent adult Canadians to request medical assistance in dying (MAID). Healthcare professionals now can participate if the individual meets specific outlined criteria. There remains confusion and lack of knowledge about the specific role of nurses in MAID. MAID is a controversial topic and nurses may be faced with the challenge of balancing the duty to provide routine care, with moral reservations about MAID. The role of a nursing leader is to support nurses by ensuring they have the knowledge they require to care for patients requesting the service, whether or not the nurse is directly involved in the MAID process. The moral dilemmas raised by MAID provide an opportunity to look at a relational ethics approach to nursing leadership both for MAID and other difficult situations that arise in nursing practice. Relational ethics is a framework that proposes that the ethical moments in healthcare are based on relationships and fostering growth, healing, and health through the foundational concepts of mutual respect, engagement, embodiment, and environment. This article will use a relational ethics framework to examine how nursing leadership can support nurses who care for patients requesting MAID.
ISSN:1477-0989
Contains:Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0969733017730684