title: Failing to do the right thing: nurse practice and the family experience.
abstract: Ethical end of life decisions are increasingly viewed by the global healthcare community as complex and imbued with uncertainty in institutional healthcare settings. Each person experiences health decision-making and the concept of time differently and uniquely. In the context of end of life situations, both the recipients of healthcare and their families may experience complex decision-making in situations where profound questioning and uncertainty surfaces with a struggling of desiring to do the right thing comingling with the possibilities of failing to do the right thing according to the expectations of self and others. This column begins a discussion of possible meanings found in ethical decision-making with families as articulated with the lens of the humanbecoming family model.
authors.affiliation: California Baptist University, Riverside, CA 92504, USA. constancemilton@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Constance L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Milton
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000941:ethics*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013727:Terminal Care