In 200-250 words, respond to the following: Should the physician allow Mike to continue
In addition to the topic study materials, use the chart you completed and questions you answered in the Topic 3 about “Case Study: Healing and Autonomy” as the basis for your responses in this assignment.
Answer the following questions about a patient’s spiritual needs in light of the Christian worldview.
- In 200-250 words, respond to the following: Should the physician allow Mike to continue making decisions that seem to him to be irrational and harmful to James, or would that mean a disrespect of a patient’s autonomy? Explain your rationale.
- In 400-500 words, respond to the following: How ought the Christian think about sickness and health? How should a Christian think about medical intervention? What should Mike as a Christian do? How should he reason about trusting God and treating James in relation to what is truly honoring the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence in James’s care?
- In 200-250 words, respond to the following: How would a spiritual needs assessment help the physician assist Mike determine appropriate interventions for James and for his family or others involved in his care?
Remember to support your responses with the topic study materials.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
This benchmark assignment assesses the following competencies:
BS Nursing (RN to BSN)
5.2: Assess for the spiritual needs and provide appropriate interventions for individuals, families, and groups.
Case Study: Healing and Autonomy
Mike and Joanne are the parents of James and Samuel, identical twins born 8 years ago. James is currently suffering from acute glomerulonephritis, kidney failure. James was originally brought into the hospital for complications associated with a strep throat infection. The spread of the A streptococcus infection led to the subsequent kidney failure. James’s condition was acute enough to warrant immediate treatment.
Usually cases of acute glomerulonephritis caused by strep infection tend to improve on their own or with an antibiotic. However, James also had elevated blood pressure and enough fluid buildup that required temporary dialysis to relieve.
The attending physician suggested immediate dialysis. After some time of discussion with Joanne, Mike informs the physician that they are going to forego the dialysis and place their faith in God. Mike and Joanne had been moved by a sermon their pastor had given a week ago, and also had witnessed a close friend regain mobility when she was prayed over at a healing service after a serious stroke.
They thought it more prudent to take James immediately to a faith healing service instead of putting James through multiple rounds of dialysis. Yet, Mike and Joanne agreed to return to the hospital after the faith healing services later in the week, and in hopes that James would be healed by then.
Two days later the family returned and was forced to place James on dialysis, as his condition had deteriorated. Mike felt perplexed and tormented by his decision to not treat James earlier. Had he not enough faith? Was God punishing him or James? To make matters worse, James’s kidneys had deteriorated such that his dialysis was now not a temporary matter and was in need of a kidney transplant.
Crushed and desperate, Mike and Joanne immediately offered to donate one of their own kidneys to James, but they were not compatible donors. Over the next few weeks, amidst daily rounds of dialysis, some of their close friends and church members also offered to donate a kidney to James. However, none of them were tissue matches.
James’s nephrologist called to schedule a private appointment with Mike and Joanne. James was stable, given the regular dialysis, but would require a kidney transplant within the year. Given the desperate situation, the nephrologist informed Mike and Joanne of a donor that was an ideal tissue match, but as of yet had not been considered—James’s brother Samuel.
Mike vacillates and struggles to decide whether he should have his other son Samuel lose a kidney or perhaps wait for God to do a miracle this time around. Perhaps this is where the real testing of his faith will come in? Mike reasons, “This time around it is a matter of life and death. What could require greater faith than that?”
Expert Answer and Explanation
Benchmark – Patient’s Spiritual Needs: Case Analysis
Recent advances in technology have had significant transformation of the healthcare industry. In one way, however, the service and cure-oriented model has been abandoned by the introduction of various technological practices in spirituality (Mesquita et al., 2017). In the past, healthcare was often linked with spirituality, where healthcare givers served to incorporate the physical, social, spiritual, and emotional being to healthcare.
Nurse leaders and nurse educators today are encouraged to actively re-introduce this compassionate consideration of the patients’ spiritual needs (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017). This essay involves the analysis of a case of James, an 8 y.o. pt. whose parents are confused at the level or extent to which they should encourage spirituality in his health.
Should the physician allow Mike to continue making decisions that seem to him to be irrational and harmful to James?
The physician should not allow further mistakes to happen in the case of James, and should not let Mike, his father to continue making faulty decisions for him. The initial presentation of the case of James to the facility was clear that the only needed intervention after an infection of acute glomerulonephritis was to perform a kidney dialysis and then with the aid of an antibiotic, he would easily recover.
However, Mike, together with his wife Joanne, decided to forego the dialysis and opted to trust their faith in God. The main reason they made the decision is the fact that they had received a touching sermon that encouraged them to have more trust in God at difficult times. However, their plan on using ‘faith’ as the only weapon failed and they had to come up for an even more serious procedure. I would therefore not allow Mike to express more of spirituality than healthcare in the issue of James, as this would put him to more danger.
The principle of autonomy requires that the patient should make their own judgment regarding their health matters, and since James is too young, his parents reserve the rights for that position (Zwitter, 2019). Mike and Joanne, have the autonomy to make the decision for the child, by judging what’s most fit for them. However, as a healthcare provider, I have the right to stop them, especially if their ability to judge is blinded by faith. I can only allow them to make the principle of autonomy if they are capable of making rational decisions for Mike.
How Christians Ought to Think Regarding Faith and Health and Medical Intervention
Christians need to realize that spirituality and health are two interconnected concepts, whose expression in a patient should be done in the right proportions. They should also understand that medical interventions are mostly physical precepts that could have some spiritual element in them (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017). Unfortunately for some Christians, they feel that a sickness could be a curse from God, and hence spiritual intervention is enough intervention.
How Mike should do as a Christian Regarding Non-Maleficence and Beneficence in the Light of the Case of James
James suffers from kidney failure, has glomerulonephritis, and hypertension. If his initial needs for a dialysis were met, he would have recovered easily from the excessive fluid build-up that he faced, but the parents decided to pray for him rather than help him with the dialysis. The replacement of James’s kidney with that of his brother Samuel is the only truly helpful decision that can take place. Mike ought to accept that by committing himself to such a decision, he does the most rational thing for Mike in both the Christian and Worldview.
As a healthcare giver, I would be obliged to honor the principle of beneficence and non-maleficence, which requires me to make decisions that promote overall good and avoid harm respectively. Hence, I would ask James to understand that the decision to take Samuel’s Kidney and not to wait and gamble again with the spiritual intervention would be for the best interest. I would explain to him that the overall good could not be perceived as something that one is unsure of, as this would lead to permanent disability or even death of the child.
How A Spiritual Needs Assessment Would Help the Physician Assist Mike Determine Appropriate Interventions for James, His Family, or Others Involved In His Care
A spiritual needs assessment is one of the practices that could help the patients to ‘come to terms with’ their condition by helping them have a deeper understanding of the problem they face (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017). In the case of James, it is clear that Mike and Joanne, the parents, would also need an assessment, as they seem to have an imbalance between their spirituality and health.
In the spiritual assessment, a physician should examine the exact understanding of suffering according to the people affected. In some of the cases, patients who feel that the suffering encountered has more meaning in their life often decide to give spiritual intervention a priority in their care (Koepsell, 2017). The inability of patients to understand the deepest questions of life, especially regarding their care, can be understood in such a spiritual intervention.
A spiritual needs intervention would include the examination of the friends of James, as well as the colleagues of his parents, including how they interact (Austin et al., 2017). After a comprehensive analysis of the spiritual needs, it would be clear about the principles of ethics that are more applicable than others in the care of James.
For instance, a healthcare giver would be sure to explain to Mike and Joanne about the importance of making a decision that greatly reduces the harm or the risk of harm to the patient. Promoting recovery of James would also require the healthcare giver to take the principle of autonomy as the last consideration in this case, where they would recommend that the transplant from Samuel, the brother, to be conducted.
Conclusion
Different principles of ethics serve to guide healthcare givers in various instances, where they should honor the patients’ decision, protect them from harm, and also act in the interest of improving their health. Given the position of a physician handling the case of James, I would not allow his parents to use spiritual intervention as the only solution, as this would endanger the life of James even more. Conducting a spiritual needs assessment would also help a physician to have a broader understanding of the whole problem.
References
Austin, P., Macleod, R., Siddall, P., McSherry, W., & Egan, R. (2017). Spiritual care training is needed for clinical and non-clinical staff to manage patients’ spiritual needs. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 7(1), 50-63.
Koepsell, D. (2017). Autonomy, Dignity, Beneficence, and Justice. In Scientific Integrity and Research Ethics (pp. 61-71). Springer, Cham.
Mesquita, A. C., Chaves, É. D. C. L., & Barros, G. A. M. D. (2017). Spiritual needs of patients with cancer in palliative care: an integrative review. Current opinion in supportive and palliative care, 11(4), 334-340.
Timmins, F., & Caldeira, S. (2017). Assessing the spiritual needs of patients. Nursing Standard (2014+), 31(29), 47.
Zwitter, M. (2019). Ethical Analysis. In Medical Ethics in Clinical Practice (pp. 29-34). Springer, Cham.
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| Course Code | Class Code | Assignment Title | Total Points | |||
| PHI-413V | PHI-413V-O503 | Benchmark – Patient’s Spiritual Needs: Case Analysis | 200.0 | |||
| Criteria | Percentage | Unsatisfactory (0.00%) | Less Than Satisfactory (65.00%) | Satisfactory (75.00%) | Good (85.00%) | Excellent (100.00%) |
| Content | 90.0% | |||||
| Decision-Making and Principle of Autonomy | 30.0% | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are not analyzed according to the principle of autonomy. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are analyzed from both perspectives, but the analysis according to the principle of autonomy is unclear. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are clearly analyzed from both perspectives, but the analysis according to the principle of autonomy lack details. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are clearly analyzed from both perspectives with details according to the principle of autonomy. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are analyzed from both perspectives with a deep understanding of the complexity of the principle of autonomy. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. |
| Decision-Making, Christian Perspective, and the Principles of Beneficence and Nonmaleficence | 30.0% | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are not analyzed according to the Christian perspective and the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are analyzed according to the Christian perspective and the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, but the analysis is unclear. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are clearly analyzed according to the Christian perspective and the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence but lacks details. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are clearly analyzed with details according to the Christian perspective and the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | Decisions that need to be made by the physician and the father are analyzed with deep understanding of the complexity of the Christian perspective, as well as with the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. |
| Spiritual Needs Assessment and Intervention (C1.2, 5.2) | 30.0% | How a spiritual needs assessment would help the physician assist the father determine appropriate interventions for his son, his family, or others involved in the care of his son is not analyzed. | How a spiritual needs assessment would help the physician assist the father determine appropriate interventions for his son, his family, or others involved in the care of his son is analyzed, but unclear. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | How a spiritual needs assessment would help the physician assist the father determine appropriate interventions for his son, his family, or others involved in the care of his son is clearly analyzed but lacks details. Analysis is not supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | How a spiritual needs assessment would help the physician assist the father determine appropriate interventions for his son, his family, or others involved in the care of his son is clearly analyzed with details. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. | How a spiritual needs assessment would help the physician assist the father determine appropriate interventions for his son, his family, or others involved in the care of his son is clearly analyzed with a deep understanding of the connection between a spiritual needs assessment and providing appropriate interventions. Analysis is supported by the case study, topic study materials, or Topic 3 assignment responses. |
| Organization, Effectiveness, and Format | 10.0% | |||||
| Mechanics of Writing (includes spelling, punctuation, grammar, language use) | 5.0% | Surface errors are pervasive enough that they impede communication of meaning. Inappropriate word choice or sentence construction is used. | Frequent and repetitive mechanical errors distract the reader. Inconsistencies in language choice (register) or word choice are present. Sentence structure is correct but not varied. | Some mechanical errors or typos are present, but they are not overly distracting to the reader. Correct and varied sentence structure and audience-appropriate language are employed. | Prose is largely free of mechanical errors, although a few may be present. The writer uses a variety of effective sentence structures and figures of speech. | Writer is clearly in command of standard, written, academic English. |
| Documentation of Sources (citations, footnotes, references, bibliography, etc., as appropriate to assignment and style) | 5.0% | Sources are not documented. | Documentation of sources is inconsistent and/or incorrect, as appropriate to assignment and style, with numerous formatting errors. | Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and style, although some formatting errors may be present. | Sources are documented, as appropriate to assignment and style, and format is mostly correct. | Sources are completely and correctly documented, as appropriate to assignment and style, and format is free of error. |
| Total Weightage | 100% |
FAQs
How would a spiritual needs assessment help the physician?
A spiritual needs assessment in the context of healthcare is a process by which healthcare professionals, including physicians, explore and understand the spiritual beliefs, values, and needs of their patients. This assessment is valuable for several reasons and can significantly aid physicians in providing holistic and patient-centered care. Here’s how a spiritual needs assessment can help a physician:
- Comprehensive Patient Care:
- Understanding a patient’s spiritual beliefs and needs allows physicians to provide care that addresses the whole person—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This contributes to a more comprehensive and patient-centered approach to healthcare.
- Building Trust and Rapport:
- Discussing spiritual matters can help build trust and rapport between the physician and the patient. It shows a genuine interest in the patient’s well-being beyond just physical symptoms, fostering a stronger doctor-patient relationship.
- Personalized Treatment Plans:
- Spiritual beliefs can influence a patient’s preferences for medical treatments and end-of-life care. By knowing the patient’s spiritual needs, a physician can tailor treatment plans to align with the patient’s values, increasing the likelihood of adherence and satisfaction with the care provided.
- Coping and Resilience:
- Spirituality often plays a role in how individuals cope with illness, pain, and life challenges. Physicians who are aware of a patient’s spiritual resources can incorporate these into the patient’s coping strategies, contributing to their overall resilience and well-being.
- Ethical Decision-Making:
- In situations where medical decisions may involve ethical considerations or conflicts, understanding a patient’s spiritual values can assist physicians in navigating these challenges while respecting the patient’s beliefs and preferences.
- Addressing Existential Concerns:
- Serious illness can raise existential concerns about life, death, and purpose. Discussing spiritual needs allows physicians to address these concerns and offer support, potentially improving the patient’s overall emotional and mental well-being.
- Enhancing Communication:
- Effective communication is crucial in healthcare. Knowing a patient’s spiritual background can improve communication by allowing physicians to use language and concepts that resonate with the patient, fostering clearer and more meaningful discussions.
- Facilitating Collaborative Care:
- In situations where a patient’s spiritual needs go beyond the expertise of the physician, a spiritual needs assessment enables the physician to involve chaplains, counselors, or other spiritual care providers in the patient’s healthcare team. This collaborative approach supports a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach to care.
How ought the Christian think about sickness and health
Christian perspectives on sickness and health can vary, but there are common themes rooted in Christian theology and biblical teachings. Here are some key aspects of how a Christian might think about sickness and health:
- Understanding Sickness as Part of a Fallen World:
- Many Christian denominations believe in the concept of the Fall, as described in the book of Genesis. This narrative suggests that sickness, suffering, and death entered the world as a consequence of humanity’s disobedience to God. Christians may view sickness as a result of living in a fallen and imperfect world.
- God as Healer:
- Christians often turn to God as the ultimate healer. They may seek comfort, strength, and healing through prayer and faith. Some believe in miraculous healing, while others view healing as a process that may involve medical intervention.
- Prayer and Faith:
- Prayer is an integral part of Christian life, and many Christians turn to prayer for strength, comfort, and healing during times of sickness. They may believe in the power of intercessory prayer for themselves or others facing health challenges.
- Medical Treatment and Stewardship:
- While relying on God for healing, many Christians also believe in the importance of medical treatment and healthcare. They see medical professionals and advancements in medicine as part of God’s provision and may view seeking medical care as a responsible stewardship of the body, a gift from God.
- Bearing One Another’s Burdens:
- Christian teachings emphasize compassion and caring for others. Christians are encouraged to support and care for those who are sick, recognizing that such acts of love reflect Christ’s teachings about caring for the vulnerable and showing empathy.
- Finding Purpose in Suffering:
- Some Christian traditions emphasize finding meaning and purpose in suffering. Sickness and challenges can be viewed as opportunities for spiritual growth, dependence on God, and empathy for others. The idea is that God can use difficult circumstances for a greater purpose.
- Hope in Eternal Life:
- The Christian belief in the resurrection and eternal life can provide hope and comfort during times of sickness. Christians may see their present suffering as temporary, with the assurance of a future existence in the presence of God, free from pain and illness.
- Community Support:
- Christian communities often emphasize the importance of fellowship and support. When someone is sick, the community may rally around them, providing practical help, emotional support, and prayers.
