The Invisible Patient Assignment

After reviewing The Invisible Patients documentary, define/describe in detail an ethical dilemma that was experienced by the NP. Please note, there are several ethical issues, so there should be diversity in the responses.  Explain how you would have handled the situation.

• How is the NP in the documentary a Disruptive Innovator?
• Discuss if there is a relationship between your personal beliefs and values and this ethical dilemma/barrier.
• Describe at least one mechanism to overcome the barrier discussed.
• Examine the potential cost and benefits to this barrier.

Remember there is no right or wrong answer for this ethical question. Suggested reference Look at the Nuremburg Code (US Department of Health & Human Services, 2005; Washington, 2012) as it was the major start of ethics in research and that can carry over to nursing practice.

The Invisible Patient Assignment

· Increased focus on cultural issues and health disparities. The issue of health disparities has emerged as a central concern in nursing and other health disciplines; this in turn has raised consciousness about the cultural sensitivity of health interventions and the cultural competence of health care workers. There is growing awareness that research must be sensitive to the health beliefs, behaviors, and values of culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

· Clinical significance and patient input. Research findings increasingly must meet the test of being clinically significant, and patients have taken center stage in efforts to define clinical significance. A major challenge in the years ahead will involve getting both research evidence and patient preferences into clinical decisions, and designing research to study the process and the outcomes.

Broad research priorities for the future have been articulated by many nursing organizations, including NINR and Sigma Theta Tau International. Expert panels and research working groups help NINR to identify gaps in current knowledge that require research. The primary areas of research funded by NINR in 2014 were health promotion/disease prevention, eliminating health disparities, caregiving, symptom management, and self-management. Research priorities that have been expressed by Sigma Theta Tau International include advancing healthy communities through health promotion; preventing disease and recognizing social, economic, and political determinants; implementation of evidence-based practice; targeting the needs of vulnerable populations such as the poor and chronically ill; and developing nurses’ capacity for research. Priorities also have been developed for several nursing specialties and for nurses in several countries—for example, Ireland (Brenner et al., 2014; Drennan et al., 2007), Sweden (Bäck-Pettersson et al., 2008), Australia (Wynaden et al., 2014), and Korea (Kim et al., 2002).