HEALTH CARE LAW AND ETHICS

 Sonya works as a certified nursing assistant at Golden Days Assisted Living Facility. As a very kind and hard working professional employed by the facility for over 10 years, she has a good relationship with her patients and her co-workers. She is also a caring and supportive granddaughter, who is also caring for her elderly grandfather Samuel at home. Although her grandfather is still able to take care of his most basic needs, his health has been declining. As his arthritis and diabetes have both worsened, he has gradually refused to leave the house or to see his physician. On several recent occasions, he has told Sonya that he does not want to keep living this way, but he refuses to see a counselor. Sonya worries about leaving him alone at home but she does not have the money to hire a caretaker for him while she is at work – she barely makes ends meet on her meager earnings. One of Sonya’s favorite patients, John, reminds her of her grandfather, in part, because he often refuses to comply with medical instructions, including taking his medication. As John has been experiencing insomnia, making him quite active some evenings and nights, his physician has prescribed Trazodone to help him rest and to help improve his slightly depressed mood. When she tries to assist John in taking his Trazodone, he refuses to take it. Sonya begins pocketing the medicine to take home. She starts giving her grandfather Trazodone before leaving for work to help him rest and to help his depressed mood. After just a few days, her grandfather’s mood seems to noticeably improve. Upon returning home late at the end of her shift that week, Sonya discovers her grandfather on the floor unconscious with a nasty gash on his head. Visibly upset, she rushes him to the emergency room where he is examined and found to have developed an irregular heart rhythm, which likely resulted in him fainting and hitting his head as he fell. Sonya calls in to take several days off of work to be with her grandfather who is discharged to her care. When Sonya returns to work, the Director of Nursing calls Sonya into her office. She advises Sonya that John refused to take his evening medication and that he’d told another nursing assistant that “Sonya doesn’t insist I take this, so I don’t have to listen to you.” Upon being questioned about where the medication has gone, Sonya admits taking the pills home and giving it to her grandfather. She explains about her dire financial circumstances, the lack of support as a caregiver for her grandfather, and her fears about her grandfather’s increasingly depressed mood. Sonya admits knowing that what she did was wrong but she pleads for a second chance to stay at the facility.