How to approach the questions The Assignment requires that you read the “Janet & Mrs Jordan” scenario (which has an Original and an Alternative Version), and make informed and reasoned responses to...

How to approach the questions
The Assignment requires that you read the “Janet & Mrs Jordan” scenario
(which has an Original and an Alternative Version), and make informed and
reasoned responses to the associated 5 Questions.
Questions 1 and 2 require concise and informed evaluation of Janet’s conduct.
Your earlier study of legal dimensions of practice (Year One) and your current
reflections on ethics can underpin some of your responses here. You will also
need to be aware of some of the legal and ethical aspects of the ending of lives
in acute care settings: Readings provided in this Resources folder can help you
here.
Question 3 invites you to think carefully about what happens in the two
versions of the scenario. You need to think critically about the legal and ethical
dimensions of debate regarding the ending of lives in clinical settings. In
particular, you need to think about the main features of each version (things
said, things done, and reasons for these things), and ask yourself: do these main
features support a change in the law regarding euthanasia, or do they indicate,
instead, that we should maintain the current legal prohibition? Keep in mind
that there is an ongoing community debate regarding euthanasia: this means that
there is a debate about what the law should say; it is not a debate about what the
law says.
Question 4 calls for critical reflection on the idea of advocacy on behalf of
patients. This means that you should not simply assume that ‘advocacy’ is either
a straightforwardly clear idea, or that it is obviously relevant to nursing. The
exercise on advocacy that you will do in your tutorial class will be a useful start
in thinking about this idea.
Question 5 requires, first of all, that you read the article by Yarling &
McElmurry: it is imperative that you understand the reasons they give for their
proposal that nurses be authorised to write NFR orders. A set of Notes on the
Y&M paper, and the issues arising from it, is also available in the relevant
Readings folder. We recommend that you read these Notes in thinking about
Q5. You need to recognise that the basic ethical issue here is: what authority do
nurses need in order to do justice to their obligations to patients?
6. Because of the issues