Running head: EFOLIO - ESSENTIAL V

eFolio - Essential V Naomi Everett Frostburg State University

EFOLIO - ESSENTIAL V eFolio - Essential V The essence of the Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing

Practice Essential V is to ensure knowledge of how healthcare policies, including financial and regulatory, directly and indirectly influence the nature and functioning of the healthcare system and thereby are important considerations for nursing practice (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2008, p. 3). A baccalaureate-prepared nurse must have an understanding of how healthcare services are organized, financed, and regulated. She must be able to clearly understand how regulations affect the delivery of healthcare services. In addition, she must understand how healthcare policy is developed and how nursing practice influences policy. It is a moral and ethical responsibility of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse to promote social justice and advocate for vulnerable populations (AACN, 2008, p. 20). Exemplar The selected assignment was to analyze and defend a topic of my choice utilizing ethical concepts and legal principles. I chose to examine assisted suicide. Of all the work completed in the course, my paper entitled A Discussion on Assisted Suicide best incorporated the requirements of Essential V. In this assignment I explored the legal precedents related to assisted suicide, presented various ethical viewpoints, and discussed and defended my own ethical viewpoint. Reflection As a professional neuroscience nurse I have provided care to several patients who were near end-of-life and receiving only palliative care and I am comfortable doing so. Over the past three years I have gained knowledge in the legal principles that relate to the care of a patient who is not likely to recover from their illness as well has had an opportunity to observe the family

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dynamics involved in making the decision to no longer actively pursue a course of treatment and switch focus to comfort care. The decision to focus on end-of-life care is rarely made by the patient alone; in general the entire family system is involved in the decision making process. I have also had an opportunity to observe physicians as they conduct end-of-life care discussions with the patient and family. Some physicians are adept at addressing the need to consider palliative care with the patient and their family and some are simply uncomfortable with the process. I have never been asked to hasten the death of a patient. Researching and writing A Discussion on Assisted Suicide deepened my knowledge of this subject and gave me an opportunity to further examine my own views. Essential V states that a baccalaureate-prepared nurse must be able to describe state and national statues, rules, and regulations that authorize and define professional nursing practice (AACN, 2008, p. 21). Through my research I now have a more thorough understanding of the legal principles related to assisted suicide. In addition, a nurse must be able to use an ethical framework to evaluate the impact of social policies on health care, especially for vulnerable populations (AACN, 2008, p. 21). The topic of assisted suicide as a strictly legal issue is complicated by bioethics and moral principles. I have always held that a patient has the right to choose assisted suicide in states where it is legal but I had never considered assisted suicide from a moral point of view. I had never considered whether or not I would actively participate in assisting a terminally ill patient end their life. Now that I have examined this subject more deeply from legal, ethical and personal perspectives, I have determined that I my own ethical viewpoint would not allow me to actively assist a patient to die.

EFOLIO - ESSENTIAL V References American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. [Adobe Digital Editions version]. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/educationresources/baccessentials08.pdf