Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas
Evanya S. Perry
335
January 20th, 2014
Dr. Tami Frye

Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas When trying to apply different approaches to ethical dilemmas there are several different steps that need to be taken. Understanding the case study, providing answers to difficult questions, determining an approach to take that would best suit the ethical dilemma, and identifying the ethical issues encountered along with providing an approach method will be the first few steps taken. These steps are important to recognize before proceeding in any way. In case number five we are introduced to a woman named Janet Lewis who is a registered nurse. The case study describes her as a motivated worker that has a child with special needs that she raises on her own. Other important information about Janet is the fact that she volunteers to pick up extra shifts to help her employer cover available hours. The case study describes the hours leading up to the situation that happens one day with Janet. On one particular day Janet had covered so many hours that she worked without getting any sleep and was exhausted. Later in her shift because of her exhaustion she misreads a label of medication and proceeds to give the wrong medication to the doctor to be administered. This mistake proves to be fatal and the patient dies. Janet tells the doctor about her mistake and is overheard by the patient’s family. An incident report is filed shortly after and mistakenly documented into the patients chart by an employee who is unfamiliar with the hospital’s policies documents. Later that same chart is given to the patient’s family who intends to file a malpractice suit. Employee issues lead the same employee to deliver the documents that contain misfiled documentation to that family. Questions 1. Identify actions that could have been