Ask an Expert: Refusal of life-sustaining treatment
Charlotte Davis BSN, RN, CCRN
Andrea M. Stone BSN, RN

$3.95 		Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!
June 2013 
Volume 11  Number 3
Pages 54 - 55
 
  PDF Version Available!

ABSTRACT
A: One of the greatest ethical dilemmas a nurse can encounter is when a patient refuses life-sustaining treatment-any procedure, medication, intervention, or use of medical technology that can postpone death. As healthcare providers, we're instilled with the primary objective to save lives. However, when treatment options are aimed at prolonging the patient's life, and no acceptable curative treatment option is available, patients may opt to cease medical treatment.Even when curative options are available, patients may not be willing to undergo the physical trauma, time involved, or associated emotional distress. As patient advocates, we're torn between the need to save the patient's life and ensuring that his or her psychosocial needs are met and decisions honored.Common examples of life-sustaining treatment include dialysis, mechanical ventilation, CPR, tube feeding, parenteral nutrition, I.V. fluids, antibiotics, chemotherapy, blood transfusions, extensive burn debridement, painful

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