Comments please...

[EdmontonAB]

You are asked to debate whether or not families are in the best position to determine their own health goals and to attain them through identifying and further developing their strengths as an egalitarian partner with a family nurse. Which side would you prefer to debate and what evidence would you use to support your position?

[lumberjack]

Absolutly the family is the one to determine their health goal, by extension of the fact that the patient has the right to determine their own health goals. These goals may not be in line with what we in the medical field would consider "healthy" or "healthiest", but it is the right of every person to live their life as they see fit, without imposition by someone who claims to know better. Education is one thing, having goals (and by implication actions) imposed by an outside person or agency is another. Sorry if this comes across as overly harsh in tone, but personal liberty is a subject I hold quite dear, and having been a patient myself (haven't we all at one point or another?) and been subject to the notions of those who "knew better", I get a little touchy.