Autonomy In Nursing

Introduction: A duty of a doctor lies with his or her patient, to provide the necessary care that is in accordance with the beliefs and desires of that patient. In order to achieve this goal, a physician must take into consideration the patient’s autonomy, or right in making his or her own decisions (Tournier. 2015). The concept of autonomy does not pose any ethical issues when the patient involved is a mentally-fully functioning adult. An adult can provide or deny consent to treatment. An adult is legally allowed to make his or her own decision. An adult is deemed worthy of that right because he or she has lived for at least 18 years. What then happens to patient autonomy when the patient is a child, a legal minor? According to …show more content…
The judgment of the physician on the patient’s cognitive reasoning is not one that easily attained, due to the three stages of childhood, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, in which neural development exponentially increases from one stage to another, as well as nature of the relationship between patient and doctor. In a doctor- patient relationship that has been well-established throughout many months or years of treatment, a doctor would have a better perception on the patient’s cognitive understanding compared to a newly founded patient-doctor relationship. (Parsapoor, Parsapoor, Rezaei and Asghari. 2014. Pg. 242-3) A pediatric patient cannot have complete autonomy for legal reasons, but the model of PSDM would allow for a patient to be involved in the decision making process. Emphasis is placed on the assent of the patient for in PSDM cases a decision is made in accordance with the three parties involved, thus alleviating any stressed placed on an individual concerning medical …show more content…
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