AMoral Distress Awakens Personal Transformation Volume 3 - Issue 2

Jesus A Hernandez*

• Assistant Professor of Nursing, Presbyterian School of Nursing , Queens University of Charlotte, USA

Received: November 11, 2020   Published: December 16, 2020

Corresponding author: Jesus A Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Presbyterian School of Nursing , Queens University of Charlotte, USA

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2020.03.000160

 

Fulltext PDF

To view the Full Article   Peer-reviewed Article PDF

Abstract

Many family, friends and colleagues have expressed interest on my personal responses to a case study on providing family-centered care to a Hindu family deciding no medical intervention for their newborn with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome (HRHS) [1]. I described how for five days many on the healthcare team experienced moral distress as they provided palliative care to the dying newborn, yet the details of how it impacted me remained unanswered. In four decades of providing care to children and families in my roles as registered nurse, educator and later family nurse practitioner, my perceptions were that most families struggled to advocate for the healthcare team to do everything possible to save the life of their child at any cost, even when it seemed all hope was lost.

Commentary| References|