HSA 515
Assignment 4: The Feeding Tube
Write a 4 to 6 page paper based on your answers to the corresponding questions for the following scenario:
Scenario:
June, a 34-year-old divorced woman diagnosed with severe anorexia, is hospitalized. Her doctors feel she may need to be placed on a feeding tube soon to save her life. Initially June agreed to the feeding tube. However, in the evening (before the tube has been placed), she became combative, disoriented, and refused to have the feeding tube placed. Her mother and father insisted that the feeding tube be REPLACEed despite her refusal to allow it. Her ex-husband wishes to uphold June’s decision. The hospital administrators seek risk management for legal counsel.
Utilize your Showalter textbook and at least two other sources to answer the following questions:
Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this situation.
Based on the facts given in the scenario, would the patient be considered competent to decide? Explain your answer.
Explain the primary responsibility of June’s doctors.
Explain the primary responsibility of the hospital administrators.
Explain the hospital’s ethical obligations in this situation.
Explain the hospital’s legal obligations in this situation
ANSWER:
1. Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this situation.
The U.S constitution is called the supreme law of the land because it sets standards against which all other laws are judged. The constitution is a grant of power from the states to the federal government. The constitution is a grant of power from the states to the federal government. This grant of power to the federal government is both express and implied. The U.S congress levy and collect taxes, borrow and coin money, declare war, raise and support armies. Congress may also enact laws that are necessary and proper for exercising these expressive powers.
The first ten were ratified in 1791 which are known now as the bill or rights some rights include the following: the right to exercise freedom of speech, practice religion, be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures, bear arms in an organized militia, demand a jury trial, to be protected against self-incrimination and be accordance substantive and procedural due process of law. The bill of rights apply to this situation because June has the right to decide what she wants to do which means she has the right to eat or not eat because it’s her body. Since June initially agreed to have the feeding tube the Bill of rights shouldn’t really apply to her. But since June does have the right to do what she wants to do. This makes June justifiable and makes her have the right to actually decide what she wants to do. This means she has the right to not have the feeding tube REPLACEed in her stomach. In this event it’s difficult to understand why she would do this to herself. June can also be considered suicidal because she is willing to actually risk her life and she could pose a threat on herself and others. The bill of rights does apply to June’s right this is why she is going to need to get legal counsel in order to continue with the feeding tube.
2. Based on the facts given in the scenario, would the patient be considered competent to decide? Explain your answer.
Anorexia is an eating disorder which is characterized by the refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. This can be coupled with a distorted self image.
They alter of how the affected individual evaluates and thinks about her or his body, food and eating. People with anorexia continue to feel huger but deny themselves all but very small quantities of food. Based on the facts of this scenario I believe that June the patient is not unable to decide whether to have the feeding tube.
At the time of the feeding tube she becomes combative and disoriented. This makes her unable to actually help herself out of this mess she has gotten into. This is because June has a disease and is refusing to eat this is considered an illness. June’s condition requires console and care in order for her to survive.
3. Explain the primary responsibility of June’s doctors.
The responsibility of June’s doctors is to make sure she gets the proper care and makes sure she eats the correct food. It’s important for June to understand that she has to eat food in order to survive. And also it’s very important June eats in order to survive in order live. It’s also important for the doctor’s to help June understand that this is a mental condition of how she evaluates herself. Also June needs to understand that this is a psychiatric disorder and that it requires immediate counsel in order to get past it. June needs to understand that the symptoms can include starvation and malnutrition which is common in this disease and that is can cause complications through every organ in her body. Some of these complications can cause rapid and dramatic weight loss. And even dieting which leads to being dangerously underweight. There is also a fear of gaining weight of becoming overweight. Some anorexia’s use laxatives and diet pills on a regular basis and may even engage in self-induced vomiting.
4. Explain the primary responsibility of the hospital administrators.
Hospital administrators are responsible for overall management of health services centers. The following polices are set by governing board of trustees, administrators plan and organize, direct and control coordinate medical and health services. This would include drug abuse treatment centers and long term care facilities. Their responsibilities are varied and usually require the cooperation of assistant administrators and the medical support staff.
The hospital is seeking risk management for legal counsel. This is important in order to save her life. With Anorexia this type of eating disorder can kill people with starving themselves to death. Individuals with anorexia have extreme weight loss which is 15% below the average person normal body weight. People with anorexia are very skinny but are still convinced they are still overweight. Many individual will refuse to eat in front of other people.
5. Explain the hospital’s ethical obligations in this situation. The hospital ethical obligation in this situation is important because their main objective is to save June life even if she refuses because of obsession to be thin. This disease of anorexia is a very serious and dangerous. There are many individuals that take this disease to far as to starve themselves to death. And in some circumstances some women don’t even care is they eat or not. More individuals with this disease are more concerned with how good they look than eating food. Many models suffer from this disease because of many people perception of being thin looks better than being average.
6. Explain the hospital’s legal obligations in this situation
The hospital’s legal obligation in this situation is to try to save June life from starving herself to death. It’s also June’s right to refuse help and deny it. But it’s the hospital’s legal obligation in this situation to try in any way possible to save June’s life. The hospital needs to make sure they get her legal consent before there is any feeding tube placed into her body. June needs to be aware of her care and that she is being helped by the hospital rather than being held against her will. This is why the legal counsel is important for her to go through in order to save her life. It’s also the hospitals obligation to educate her on certain issues that are affecting her mentally and psychically which can also be another factor in her suffering from this disease. Apparently June needs to be educated on the causes and reasons of her disease. Some cultural factors could have led to the promotion of thinness as the ideal female form in the western industrialized nations. This disease is likely to develop among certain environmental factors such as through gender and ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This is primarily true from non-European parents who are wealthy and are from white families this is based on statistics. Another factor that can influence this disease is because of particular professions such as models, actors and dancers. Another factor can be because of the constant pressure of being thin from the social media.
Reference
Showalter, J. S. (2008). The law of healthcare administration (5th ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.
Anorexia. (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/26622/anorexia
For the American Heritage Dictionary definition:
counsel. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved August 21 2011 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/counsel