Mr. S, an 88-year-old with metastatic cancer, resides in a skilled nursing facility. He has begun to actively decline and is in great pain. He is under the care of a local hospice facility, and the on-site hospice nurse has ordered liquid morphine for him. Because of a power outage, access to medications has become impossible.
The only available morphine at the facility is in an unopened emergency kit designated for another patient who recently died. The power outage has prevented pharmacies from filling this emergency order. State law requires that the kit be destroyed. The hospice nurse asks the nursing home if they could use the morphine from that kit for this emergency to relieve Mr. S’s pain. The nursing home is OK with the request and will allow the nurse to open the kit.
What is the moral issue?
Whose issue is it?
Is anyone responsible to address it?
Gather the relevant facts.
Test for right versus wrong.
Were any laws broken?
Test for the right versus right paradigm.
Is this a short-term issue, a long-term issue, a local issue, a community issue? Explain.
What action would you take if you were the nurse? What are possible consequences (good and bad) of your decision
What could be done to avoid this situation and the moral issues around it in the future?