Nursing Ethics

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The situation regarding waking a patient who experienced insomnia and later catches sleep presents a very tough dilemma. The situation is escalated by the fact that the physician wanted vital signs taken in every three hours. This, therefore, creates a tough decision whether to wake the patient who has not slept for the past 3 days so that the vital signs can be taken. First, failing to take the vital signs because the patient is asleep is a form of negligence and disobedience to the physician orders (Melia, 1994). My decision would be waking the patient to facilitate recording of the vital signs. My decision would be informed by the facts that the patient might not be asleep as a result of rest or recover from insomnia but as a result of another complication that is developing and can only be noted when the vital signs are recorded. The pros of this decision are to enable in noting if there is another ailment that might be the reason for making the patient sleep. On the hand, the cons are that the patient would wake up and may not catch the sleep again. Ethically this...