Suchergebnisse

With the advent of legalized medical assistance in dying [MAiD] in Canada in 2016, nursing is facing intriguing new ethical and theoretical challenges. Among them is the concept of conscientious objection, which was built into the legislation as a safeguard to protect the rights of healthcare workers who feel they cannot participate in something that feels morally or ethically wrong. In this paper, we consider the ethical complexity that characterizes nurses' participation in MAiD and propose strategies to support nurses' moral reflection and imagination as they seek to make sense of their decision to participate or not. Deconstructing the multiple and sometimes conflicting ethical and professional obligations inherent in nursing in such a context, we consider ways in which nurses can sustain their role as critically reflective moral agents within a context of a relational practice, serving the diverse needs of patients, families, and communities, as Canadian society continues to evolve within this new way of engaging with matters of living and dying.

There is urgent need to effectively support the well-being of rural palliative family caregivers (FCGs). A mixed method study was conducted with 23 FCGs. Data collection included completion of an assessment questionnaire and semistructured interviews. The most prevalent needs identified by questionnaire were caring for the patient's pain, fatigue, body, and nourishment; FCG's fatigue and need for respite. Yet few FCGs wanted more attention to these needs by healthcare providers. FCGs resisted considering their own personal needs. Instead, they focused on needs related to providing care including to be(come) a palliative caregiver, be skilled and know more, navigate competing wishes, needs, demands, and priorities, and for "an extra pair of hands." Gaps in rural palliative services contributed to low expectations for assistance; reluctance to seek assistance was influenced by FCGs' resourcefulness and independence. Findings suggest that supporting FCGs will most likely be successful when framed in relation to their caregiving role.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code's prohibition on assisted death. Just over a year later, the federal government crafted legislation to entrench medical assistance in dying (MAiD), the term used in Canada in place of physician‐assisted death. Notably, Canada became the first country to allow nurse practitioners to act as assessors and providers, a result of a strong lobby by the Canadian Nurses Association. However, a legislated approach to assisted death has proven challenging in a number of areas. Although it facilitates a degree of accountability, precision and accessibility, it has also resulted in particular challenges negotiating the diverse perspectives of such a morally contentious act. One of these challenges is the tendency to conflate what is legal and what is moral in a modern liberal constitutionalism that places supreme value on autonomy and choice. Such a conflation tends to render invisible the legal and moral/ethical considerations necessary for nurses and nurse practitioners to remain ethical actors. In this paper, we introduce this conflation and then discuss the process of lawmaking in Canada, including the legalization of MAiD and the contributions of nursing to that legalization. We then engage in a hypothetical dialogue about the legal and moral/ethical implications of MAiD for nursing in Canada. We conclude with an appeal for morally sustainable workspaces that, when implementing MAiD, appropriately balance patient choices and nurses' moral well‐being.