Ethical Issues about Children Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Maria Lavdaniti^1, , Evangelos Bolis² and Greta Hotza²

¹Assistant Professor, Nursing Department Alexander Technological Educational Institute, Thessaloniki

²RN, Alexander Technological Educational Institute, Thessaloniki

Cite this paper:
Maria Lavdaniti, Evangelos Bolis and Greta Hotza. Ethical Issues about Children Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. American Journal of Nursing Research. 2015; 3(1):1-3. doi: 10.12691/ajnr-3-1-1

Abstract

There are cases of cardiopulmonary resuscitation that include ethical issues. An ethical issue that health professionals confront is the moral situation in which the person has to decide what is proper to do based on their values and the legislation. If the victim is a child, the parents are the ones to make the decision for stop or not the resuscitation efforts. The physician can intervene in the decision making in the best interest of the child, though. The purpose of this article is to identify ethical issues about children resuscitation and stress the presence of parents during resuscitation. A literature review was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed and Google scholar. Exclusion criteria of articles were the language, except English. The paediatric resuscitation aims not only for the restoration of the fuctions but, also, a life with the lack of neurogenous malfactions. If such malfactions are present, CPR should stop. Another ethical dilemma is the presence of parents while the procedure is in progress. Usually, it is allowed and they are supervised for not interrupting the efforts and empathically informed by a member of the resuscitation team. A greater focus should be made on educating resuscitation. Only specialists have the right to perform CPR but unspecialized staff has to be educated, too. There is a great need for further research between medical and social sciences in order to give answers in special ethical issues about children resuscitation.

Keywords:
child paediatric resuscitation CPR ethics issues

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