title: Parental rights and decision making regarding vaccinations: ethical dilemmas for the primary care provider.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To discuss the ethical dilemma that a primary care nurse practitioner (NP) must face when parents refuse to have their children immunized.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of published literature on the topic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By listening carefully to their concerns, responding honestly, and providing clear information about the risks and benefits, NPs may be able to build trust and to convince once hesitant parents to have their children immunized. For those parents who refuse, NPs may feel uncertain on how to respond. By considering the ethical principles to which they are bound, autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence, NPs can work with the parents to decide what treatment is best for the child.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Providing truthful information to parents and utilizing public awareness through recent discussions in the media and on the Internet may be able to obviate many of the concerns of parents, which may be getting in the way of universal immunization.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Therapeutics Program, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. aef2120@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernbach
mesh_terms: D002961:Civil Rights / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011368:Professional-Family Relations / Q000941:ethics