What IS the a hospitals responsibility to the patient?
June 10th, 2009 | by Rick |
DesiDani(still waiting for 12am) asked:
*A pt doesn’t have the will to live?
*The medical staff is doing everything professionally and medically possible for this patient.
*The patent’s family is blaming the medical staff because their parent is losing the “will to live”. They claim that no one cares and that we should talk to her. (Please note that medical staff in hospitals hardly have the time to urinate).
*A pt doesn’t have the will to live?
*The medical staff is doing everything professionally and medically possible for this patient.
*The patent’s family is blaming the medical staff because their parent is losing the “will to live”. They claim that no one cares and that we should talk to her. (Please note that medical staff in hospitals hardly have the time to urinate).
My question is does medical care include convincing the patient to live? What is the doctors and nurses responsibility to the patient outside of medical care? Is the offer of encouragement a part of it or is it an extra?
DYLAN
7 Responses to “What IS the a hospitals responsibility to the patient?”
By TODD on Jun 13, 2009 | Reply
CHANCE
A man once died just outside of an emergency room because it wasn’t that hospital “policy” to recover people from the “sidewalk”.
Convincing a patient to live is a psychiatrist’s job, not a nurse or medical doctor.
By CLYDE on Jun 14, 2009 | Reply
HOLLIS
There is no requirement that hospitals convince the patients to live, rather it is the hospital’s duty to give the patient the information and if the patient so desires the treatment to do that as well, to the best of their ability. Many hospitals have people, volunteers, that offer guidance and hope, but that is not a hospital’s job.
By ABE on Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
LANDON
The hospital staff has No responsibility for convincing someone they should continue to live. Have your family bring in a counselor or religious authority figure if they think that will help. Have they considered that maybe the patient might know or realize something they don’t? I think we should be able to choose when it is our time to ‘go’, and that we should not be forced to continue our life, if there is no purpose to it. Is this person terminally ill anyway? If so, your family is simply postponing the inevitable, and causing the suffering of the patient for no reason other than their own selfishness. The family has the duty to encourage the person to live, Not the hospital staff.
By EZRA on Jun 18, 2009 | Reply
CYRUS
Usually the hospital has some clergy or volunteers that can talk to or spend time with the patient.
Why wouldnt this be the family’s responsibility? I dont see why the family would put this on the hospital staff. Their job is physical, not emotional.
I have to say when my grandma got sick the hospital she was at was sooo wonderful to the family. They bent over backwards to make sure they could accommodate a very large family that wanted to be there almost constantly so that if she was about to pass away we could say goodbye. It was so nice during such a horrible time. The doctors, nurses, clergy, volunteers, everyone was right there whenever we needed something or wanted more info.
I think the hospital staff should do as much as they can to accommodate the family but the family has to do its part, too.
By CLINTON on Jun 19, 2009 | Reply
MARCUS
I don’t believe hospital staff are responsible for convincing a patient they have a reason to live. There’s nothing wrong with dying in the first place. The loved ones are realizing the truth- that their parent may die and perhaps even wants to die. If this is an older patient I can understand why. I spent time as a volunteer in a nursing home and once found a woman crying in her room. I asked her what was wrong and she replied that she “wanted to go home” and couldn’t understand why God would not take her home. She was old and lonely and wanted to die. She wasn’t being suicidal, she was being realistic to the fact that she had lived a good and long life and was ready to retire from it- permanently.
By AUGUST on Jun 22, 2009 | Reply
WALLACE
I think your in the wrong section, but I’ll answer anyway. No, it is not expected of the staff to “give” a person the will to live, there is not a transfusion for that. I know that you can’t say it, but perhaps the family should look to themselves for the answer to that question. It’s the same thing with babies, except they call it a failure to thrive, and that is not grounds for a law suit. The only thing I can think of is that even in unconscious patients we were taught to treat them as they were awake, with regard to privacy and even a little chit chat and explaining the procedures that you will be doing. Perhaps, you could suggest that the family treat the person as if they were awake too, turn on the tv, tell them whats going on, tell the person why they want or need them to live. While encouragement is welcomed and nice, I have met a great number of doctors that would put House’s bedside manner to shame.
By CLIFF on Jun 24, 2009 | Reply
SHAWN
“My question is does medical care include convincing the patient to live? What is the doctors and nurses responsibility to the patient outside of medical care? Is the offer of encouragement a part of it or is it an extra?”
It would all depend on the patient.
Medical staff can only do what they are trained to (professionally and medically) while offering “empathy” (being optimistic).
If the patient has religious beliefs, some if not most hospitals either have a chaple or an on call pastor/priest available and on call. Medical staff attending to the patient would actually know this either by records collected or by family members expressing this. The extra encouragement from Med Staff could come in the form of advising that a spiritual/religious person come in and pray with the patient.
If the patient has other spiritual beliefs, then implore the family to ask an outsider that shares the same beliefs as the patient to come in and sit/talk with them.
Take care