Is this ethical?

Published

Hypothetical situation:

A 90+ year old woman with advanced dementia and cancer wants to nap during day. However, POA insists she does not sleep and be engaged entire day. Would you consider not allowing her to nap unethical?

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Is this homework? What do you think ?

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

No one ever better try to stop me from taking a nap!

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No, this isn't homework. I'm not a student. I personally feel it's wrong to refuse to allow someone to nap, especially someone in the state of health. I was hoping to hear reasoning from someone who feels otherwise because I just don't understand how this could be enforced. Does a POA have authority to request that even!?

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Power of Attorney only covers legal and money stuff.

legal Guardian controls health.

two different legal documents.

how are you supposed to keep them awake? Takzer?

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Kept awake through activities. But the client has very limited interests and attention span due to cognitive impairment. It's very difficult to keep her awake by continously introducing new activities and redirecting her repeated requests to nap

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Geez. Let her nap if you can without getting in trouble. Seems like a kindness to me although her family doesn't agree obviously.

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Is this a private duty patient? Are you a caregiver or licensed?

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Psw. Not private duty

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What's the reason for not wanting her to have a nap? Does she have difficulty sleeping at night if she naps during the day?

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Power of Attorney only covers legal and money stuff.

legal Guardian controls health.

two different legal documents.

how are you supposed to keep them awake? Takzer?

(In the US, there is such a thing as a durable power of attorney for healthcare, and it's much more common than actual guardianship.)

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Is it because of that typical dementia day/night reversal? Like if she sleeps during the day she won't sleep at night? I've seen that sometimes. Behaviour and mood change and it's just a mess. Is that what's going on for this lady?

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