Paper Example on Medical Assistance in Dying: Canadian Nurses Experiences

In healthcare, a nurse plays the role of supportive care for patients by ensuring good health and a life free from pain. Sometimes when patients suffer due to long-term illnesses that make their lives unbearable, they may opt to be put to death medically instead of waiting for the natural dyeing process because this could add more pain to them (Pesut et al., 2019). The nurses have a duty to ensure that the patient's demands are met when it comes to assisted dying (Le et al., 2017). Medical assistance in dying has become a phenomenon in healthcare, as most patients opt for the strategy. The article, "Medical Assistance in Dying: Canadian Nurses Experiences" talk about what nurses go through when assisting vulnerable patients to breathe their last. The topic has always been controversial in Canada, and most research focuses on the patients and not the nurses with prompted scholars in the discipline to do a nurse focused research on MAiD (Beuthin et al., 2018). Three scholars who are medical doctors wrote the article to narrate the experiences that nurses face when they engage in medical assistance in dying either directly or indirectly.

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The article is written by credible authorities who have qualifications in the discipline. Rosanne Beuthin is a Ph.D. holder registered nurse who has been in practice at Vancouver Island health authority in Victoria (Beuthin et al., 2018). The author is credible because she has studied nursing, which makes the article authoritative. Anne Bruce is also a Ph.D. holder registered nurse and also a professor and associate director graduate education, school of nursing at the University of Victoria (Beuthin et al., 2018). Anne is also experienced in the field because she is a nursing specialist who makes the article credible and authoritative. Lastly, Margaret Scaia, another author for the article, is a Ph.D. holder registered nurse who is an assistant professor at the school of nursing at the University of Victoria. The three authors make the article credible because they are specialists in nursing and, therefore, will use this knowledge in making the article objective and highly scholarly (Beuthin, et al., 2018). The article also uses academic language and jargon in nursing and healthcare.

The article was published for the first time on 4th July 2018, which makes it current and credible because it contains up-to-date content. The authors also use references that are updated to ensure that the article is recent. Medical journals and articles must get updated because medical practice changes rapidly over time. Due to this change is an article may become irrelevant if it has used outdated sources. In this case, the oldest reference list dates to 2011, while the majority are between 2016 and 2015(Beuthin et al., 2018).

The purpose of the articles was to investigate the nurse's experiences in providing care for patients who have opted for MAiD (Beuthin et al., 2018). Because the article is based on what the nurses go through during the practice, the researchers have used various interviews with the nurses who have ever experienced MAiD. Choosing to interview the nurses is a very feasible method to get the information directly from the affected nurses rather than relying on literature reviews.

The article's introduction is very captivating because it starts with the narratives of nurses who have experienced MAiD, which makes readers understand what the article is all about by setting the tone and the mood (Beuthin et al., 2018). For instance, one story is about how a nurse took part in assisted death for a patient who had been struggling with a long-term illness. Because the patient was very elderly, the nurse felt that it was the best option for the patient and the family because this would offer a quiet and peaceful death to their loved one (Beuthin et al., 2018). The nurse says that the patient was injected the drugs to assist the human dying, he died peacefully in the presence of their family members, and everybody was happy that their loved one did not have to undergo any pain when dying. From the experience of this nurse, assisted death should be an option for patients who could be suffering from irreversible conditions because death was imminent.

The authors have a literature review of the past research on the topic where they give some examples of this research for them to provide the basis of the gap that the article addresses (Beuthin et al., 2018). An overview of MAiD in Canada places the readers in an excellent position to understand the current state of assisted dying, which is consistent throughout the article.

The researchers used unbiased methods to recruit participants to take part in the experiment (Beuthin et al., 2018). Nurses are randomly selected with no inquiries about their religion, and the years of practice for the nurses differ from the experience of 36 years and two years. By using these methods, the authors have ensured credibility and unbiased intention because a controversial topic like this would raise religious issues. All the 17 nurses that were used had an average age of 23.6 years (Beuthin et al., 2018). The researchers used to nurses with varying experiences on assisted dying. Eight nurses had directly helped patients die medically, while seven had been indirectly involved. Two of the nurses had not been involved in the assisted dying process. By including nurses with varied experiences, the others were able to come up with an inclusive conclusion on the research.

For data collection, the researchers utilized audiotapes and semi-structured interviews whose credibility was fostered by conducting the interviews on the phone. The researchers also mentioned a few questions that were in their questionnaire. The questions are easy and straight forward.

For data analysis, the researchers opted for the narrative approach because it was highly qualitative. By use of the Braun and Clarke thematic policy, the researchers identified three descriptive themes which had the key concepts to guide in answering the research questions (Beuthin et al., 2018). Also, the researchers carried data management by the use of the Atlas Ti software package, which is recommended for qualitative analysis.

The researchers came up with three themes; the profession of nursing, personal impact, and practice of nursing, which the nurses had to talk about during data collection. The results indicated that the nurses had varied opinions about assisted dying. While most nurses support this approach in Canada, a few felt that it was not the right thing to do. From the findings, some nurses did not take positions because they did not know what to choose.

The researchers offer a discussion about their findings where they talk about the nurse's view about assisted dying in Canada (Beuthin, et al., 2018). The researchers identified that there were personal, professional, religious, and social values that nurses considered as factors that influence the MAiD. It was evident that nurses were morally affected by the whole experience as most describe the experience as being forced by their profession to do what is against their beliefs.

To spearhead on the findings, the researchers used sources from other scholarly articles that talk about the same topic (Beuthin et al., 2018). By use of legal record resources about assisted dying, they assert that nurses have always had difficult times after conducting MAiD while others felt comfortable with the process. The researchers recommend that there should be openness in the process to allow inclusivity for the nurses because they take central roles in assisted dying (Khoshnood et al., 2018).

The researchers have also come up with strengths and limitations for their research, whereby they note that the mean age that they used, which is 23.6 years of the nurses, is an essential aspect in shaping the future perceptions about assisted dying. The researchers collected data for six months after the legalization of assisted dying, which offers a historic snapshot for the article.

The three researchers also talk about the implications of the research whereby they acknowledge that assisted dying is a legal reality, and healthcare stakeholders need to understand the process through hearing, listening, talking, and supporting nurses to make them emotionally stable (Beuthin, et al., 2018).

Lastly, the authors declare no potential conflict of interest concerning the research, authorship, and publication, which makes the article very objective for readers. The article is well organized in subtopics throughout the body. This is the abstract that summarizes the report, an introduction, an overview of MAiD in Canada, literature review, the purpose of the study and its design, results, and discussions. The conclusion, in the end, summaries the content in the article.

In conclusion, the authors have laid their argument concerning assisted dying in Canada and have used the nurses to express how emotionally the process affects them. The researchers were objective in their research, which makes the article credible. By the end of the article, the researchers had answered the questions by concluding that indeed assisted dying has adverse effects on the nurses' well-being. The research is a powerful tool that future researchers can rely upon to come up with recommendations to assist the nurses in becoming better vessels of giving patients their last respect in a highly dignified manner in Canada.

References

Beuthin, R., Bruce, A., & Scaia, M. (2018, October). Medical assistance in dying (MAiD): Canadian nurses' experiences. In Nursing forum (Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 511-520). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nuf.12280

Khoshnood, N., Hopwood, M. C., Lokuge, B., Kurahashi, A., Tobin, A., Isenberg, S., & Husain, A. (2018). Exploring Canadian physicians' experiences providing medical assistance in dying: A qualitative study. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 56(2), 222-229. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392418302392

Li, M., Watt, S., Escaf, M., Gardam, M., Heesters, A., O'Leary, G., & Rodin, G. (2017). Medical assistance in dying—implementing a hospital-based program in Canada. N Engl J Med, 376(21), 2082-2088. https://www.worldrtd.net/sites/default/files/newsfiles/MAID%20protocol%20Canada%20hospital.pdf

Pesut, B., Thorne, S., Stager, M. L., Schiller, C. J., Penney, C., Hoffman, C., ... & Roussel, J. (2019). Medical assistance in dying: A review of Canadian nursing regulatory documents. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 20(3), 113-130. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1527154419845407