This book lets the reader listen to the voices of home health care nurses as they pose the ethical questions they encounter in their work. It will prove useful for practicing nurses, social workers, nursing school instructors, and home care agencies. The cases presented in each chapter are fictionalized situations based on interviews conducted with home health care nurses in both hospital-sponsored and private agencies, in hospices, and in urban and rural settings. Home health care is an increasingly important venue for nursing, as advances in medical technology and cost-containing measures shift the ill population from hospital to home. In this practice setting, nurses voice ethical concerns that are importantly different from the ethical questions most common in hospital nursing practice. Due to the special circumstances of home health care and the kind of nursing that is required, attention is given to different strategies for effective ethical responses. Each chapter of the book...
