Similar to what we talked about in class, I found one of the
earlier articles dealing with the diabetic girl, Kara Neumann, from Wisconsin
whose parents refused to seek treatment for her undiagnosed diabetes, which
resulted in her death. Of specific interest to choosing this article was when I
found that concern was brought to Kara’s Aunt, Ariel Gomez’s attention long
before Kara slipped into a diabetic coma. Gomez’s call to the authorities
alerted a cause for investigation of the child’s medical condition. Kara’s
parents had been using the days during Kara’s declining health to pray for her
wellness and not believe in the use of medicine as a cure. This of course
brought up a major issue on the ethical standing of the rights a parent has to
their child and their religious practices and to what situation calls for
intervention by the state for the sake of the child’s wellbeing. This article
is quite immensely relevant to the topic of religion and nursing care. As nurse’s
we now know situations like these happen, but what we do not know is the best
way to go about providing the best care for a patient without stepping on the
toes of their personal beliefs and practices.
My questions for you on this topic are:
1. What interventions could have been implemented to Kara’s
parent’s that might have prevented her death?
2. How far does the nurse’s responsibility reach in terms of
suspecting a case like this? If caught earlier, should it be reported? Why?
3. It is the nurse’s responsibility to remain respectful and
not allow personal religious beliefs get in the way of patient care. If asked
directly by your patient about your own beliefs that you know are different
from theirs, what would you be most inclined to say? (This happened to me once
with a patient who had cancer, it was not easy to respond to)
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