What would Florence Nightingale do?
A terminally ill patient is suffering excruciating pain. The doctor’s instructions are precise. The hospital’s policy is clear. The patient is in agony. What’s a nurse to do? It’s a standoff that’s been brewing since the days of Florence Nightingale: Reconciling the moral reasoning that nurses, health care officials and doctors use in resolving daily life and death situations involving patient care. “At some point life and death dilemmas involving patient care are eventually solved, but at what price?” asked Dr. Martha “Jenny” Estes, an assistant professor of nursing at UAH who has studied these moral issuses. Estes said her findings may help nurses who find themselves “in limbo” regarding patient care. Because nurses have more direct interaction with patients, there is a great deal of frustration involved when health care administrators and physicians avoid or delay specific decisions regarding patient care, she said. In her study, Estes interviewed 15 hospital administrators (includi
