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Principle‐based ethics and nurses' attitudes towards artificial feeding
Author(s) -
Day Lisa,
Drought Theresa,
Davis Anne J
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1995.tb02525.x
Subject(s) - beneficence , artificial nutrition , autonomy , nursing , dementia , medicine , psychology , parenteral nutrition , intensive care medicine , disease , pathology , political science , law
Nurses often institute artificial feeding for patients who would otherwise starve Recently, the courts in the United States have favoured withholding or withdrawing feedings from patients who currently refuse or previously gave some indication they would refuse artificial nutrition and hydration This paper investigates under what circumstances nurses feel justified in withholding artificial nutrition and hydration Structured interviews were conducted with 40 cancer care nurses from two sites, and 40 dementia care nurses from two sites The interviews were based on two vignettes, one involving an alert patient with terminal cancer, the other a patient suffering end‐stage Alzheimer's dementia, and were analysed for themes coinciding with principles of deontological ethics Investigators found that autonomy, beneficence and non‐maleficence most often guided nurses' decisions to withhold or implement artificial feeding