Consider the ethical aspects of health care and health policy for an aging population.

Ethical Issues in Health Care Delivery Every day nurses make decisions that have critical ethical and legal implications. In addition, nurses must follow doctors’ orders and defer to the wishes of patients and families even when they are not in agreement with those actions.

Week 10: Ethical Issues in Health Care Delivery Every day nurses make decisions that have critical ethical and legal implications. In addition, nurses must follow doctors’ orders and defer to the wishes of patients and families even when they are not in agreement with those actions. A study conducted by Pavlish et al. (2011) highlights this tension. Researchers surveyed 91 nurses attending a nursing ethics conference and found many of the nurses’ concerns centered on relieving pain in patients while still respecting the wishes of the family (Pavlish et al., 2011). One such dilemma was described as follows: Family of 40-year-old terminally ill patient with cancer refuses all pain medication for fear patient will die.