Ethical Decision-Making: Restraints for Elderly Patients

Excerpts from the Paper

Ethical Decision-Making: Restraints for Elderly Patients
Assessment
Relevant data. A nurse in a long-term care facility is admitting a client who has been transferred from a local hospital; the facility has a “least restraint” policy and has used no restraints for the past year. There is a risk assessment protocol in place that helps staff determine a plan of care that identifies behaviours that may lead to restraint use. Since the new policy has been put in place, the number of falls has not increased and those that have occurred have not resulted in greater injury but in less serious injury; incidents of skin breakdown have also declined by 50 percent. For their part, family members want the elderly female patient restrained for her...

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