Defiance of healthcare workers instructions

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Patients
may defy a healthcare workers instructions when using prescribed drugs due to
many reasons. Some of the reasons include personal and cultural beliefs, high
cost of the drugs, fear of the side effects, absence of symptoms, and having
too many medications to take. This paper will discuss a scenario where
prescription drug use creates ethical problems for a healthcare worker and its
potential solution.

The
situation involves a who refuses to take drugs because
of the side effects. The patient feels that the benzodiazepines affect his
sleep patterns. He also explains that he does not want his sleep pattern to be
altered even though he is at risk of sleepwalking when the insomnia is off.
Moreover, the patient fears that the drugs will impair his cognition skills,
driving skills, and risk falls after the care provider highlighted these side
effects before prescribing the drugs. Benzodiazepines are examples of drugs
that physicians can consider when counteracting insomnia and anxiety disorders
in older patients (Markota et al., 2016). Similarly, the patient refuses to
take other medications because they leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

The
care provider taking care of this patient has various ethical dilemmas,
including whether to encourage the patient to continue taking the drugs or not.
Taking the drugs can help the patient recover from his illness and reduce
insomnia symptoms. Similarly, the drugs can prevent the risk of the patient
falling and fracturing bones. Another ethical dilemma that the healthcare
worker is experiencing is whether to prescribe other drugs to help the patient,
considering that he refuses to take more drugs.

Moreover,
the principle of autonomy allows the patient to refuse medication or take
drugs. This principle is only applicable if the patient is in the capacity to
refuse the drug. An ethical dilemma would emerge for the physician if the
patient is not in the right capacity and competence to make this decision which
is likely for this case, and there are no relatives to decide on this.

The
ethical care that the care provider can practice is beneficence. Beneficence
refers to identifying alternative care methods or drug administration
techniques that benefit the patient without risking adverse health effects. For
example, the care provider can inform the patient that the drugs will be
crushed and added to their food to ensure they take them. Similarly, the care
provider can resort to alternative therapy like sleep hygiene education,
cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and sleep restriction therapy. The
care provider can also use coercive methods to ensure the patient takes the
drugs. For example, offering the patient pictorial and audiovisual educational
material can eliminate the hassle of re-explaining the written prescription
instructions (Chan et al., 2017). These methods are ethical and eliminate the
need for drugs to treat the patient. Also, these non-pharmacological methods
treat the patient with dignity and respect his human rights.

The
non-pharmacological methods are practical even though they may require
persuasion to convince the patient to help. Lacing the food with drugs may be
flawed because the patient may start hating the food knowing that it has the
same drugs that he is detesting. Therefore, the healthcare worker may have to
consult with the hospitals ethics committee for the appropriate method of
administering the drugs.

The
healthcare technology that applies to this patient is virtual reality (VR).
Virtual reality is a cognitive-based therapy that can manage the patients
insomnia by creating an artificial environment inducing sleep (Vailati Riboni
et al., 2020). The technology follows the moral guideline of beneficence by
treating the patients problems like insomnia and anxiety without causing the
drugs’ physical effect (Lodha, De Sousa & Karia, 2020). This approach leans
on utilitarianism whereby the patient benefits and reduces the ethical dilemma
on the care provider of having to lace food with the drugs. However, the method
is only applicable if the patient consents to it.

Social
technologies like blogs and online encyclopedias can promote this cognitive
behavioral therapy of virtual reality. These technologies can reach many people
who need help in this era of modern technology. The blogs and encyclopedias can
explain the method and its efficiency for the patients. The moral guideline
behind this strategy is beneficence since the technology can help other
patients facing similar problems but are afraid to explain it due to fear of
stigmatization. This guideline takes the utilitarian approach of benefiting the
patients and reducing the negative side effects of drugs.