Patient Rights and Autonomy

In theory, once one understood the right, one should be able to reason out the correlative obligations.

1. List at least two obligations to each of the items found in A Patient's Bill of Rights.

2. Which of the included patient's rights are currently provided in the sanction of law.

Remember to cite your sources when appropriate.

1. Given that rights have dominated several healthcare debates, how would you define rights as a healthcare provider and why? (1 Paragraph)

2. What are the consequences of your definition? (1 Paragraph)

3. What type of patient-provider model would best accommodate your definition of rights? (1 Paragraph)

4. If rights also produce obligations - how can both patients and providers claim professional or personal rights over the same issue? (1 to 2 Paragraphs)

In the following three cases, indicate whether you think it would be justified to overcome the autonomy of the patient under the principle of beneficence and why.

1. In the intensive care unit, you are working on a patient in a very unstable state. The woman and her children (who were all killed) had been in an accident. It is clear that further emotional trauma would be disastrous to the patient and may cause her death. In a lucid moment, she looks at you and asks, "How are my children?" Is this an instance when therapeutic privilege seems reasonable? Whether you decide yes or no to the therapeutic privilege question, write a sentence that you think would be the most appropriate answer for the patient. (2 to 3 Paragraphs).

2. You are working late and you enter the patient's room to find that she has climbed out on the window ledge. She appears to be crying and tells you to leave her alone. (1 Paragraph)

3. Your elderly patient hates to have the bed rails up and tells you to leave them down. (1 Paragraph)