A 46-year-old man who has begun showing signs of dementia has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He is estranged from his siblings. The nurse instructs him on the importance of informing his siblings of his disease
He states, "I don't want them to know. Let them find out on their own." What intervention should the nurse implement?
A) Call one of the patient's siblings and inform him or her of the risk for development of Alzheimer's disease.
B) Notify the geneticist and have him instruct the patient on his siblings' and parent's risk.
C) Notify the siblings' physicians about their risk for development of Alzheimer's disease.
D) Instruct the patient on the importance of notifying his siblings and keep his information confidential.
Ans: D
Feedback: Involving the geneticist in the patient's care is very important, but notifying family members or physicians would be a breech of confidentiality. A nurse may want to disclose genetics information to family members who could experience significant harm if they do not know such information. However, the patient may have other views and may wish to keep this information from the family, resulting in an ethical dilemma for patient and nurse. The nurse must honor the patient's wishes while explaining to the patient the potential benefit of this information for other family members.
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