Making Ethical Change at the Old Age Nursing Homes - Essay Example

Making Ethical Change at the Old Age Nursing Homes Area of Ethical Service or Change Making: Parents and grandparents are always a source of blessings for us. Unfortunately, in this 21st century, the concept of this relationship has been ruined at a large scale. Now people think them as a burden on them and thus they are not willing to keep them in their homes. In order to facilitate these elder people, the number of Old Homes has been increased at a very fast rate. This increasing rate of old homes is not at all a positive sign from ethical and social perspective. In my opinion, there should be a restriction on these old homes and thus children should be ethically trained to keep their elders along with them. Parents are the actual reason for our existance in this world and thus it is not at all acceptable that at our young age we may ignore them and let those lives in these so-called old homes. There are two though patterns in the society, some people consider it right to keep the parents and the grandparents in the old homes while the rest of the people are against this cruel and unethical decision. I am the supporter of the second category of the people who love to keep the elder people along with them in their homes. There is a reason behind it, I witnessed an incident of a bad behavior with a parent in a particular old home and thus after that incident, I decided to dedicate maximum of my life for these old and elder people. In other words, we can say that now taking care of old age people is the mission and the passion of my life (Weston, 56). The reason behind my strong passion and decision of taking care of elder people is an eyewitness incident of year 2005. At that time, I was young enough to visit my grandpa who was living in a reputable nursing home of the community. I went there with my mom and dad. Actually, it was my grandpa’s 90th birthday and we visited the nursing home to greet him. It was the very first time that I was going to meet him since he had shifted to the old nursing home. My grandfather was sitting under the tree. By face, he was looking very much depressed and gloomy. Though he was a very lively personality and everyone was used to enjoy his company whenever meet him. But at that time he was looking like the most serious and depressed person on the planet. I was a little shocked to see him like this. Nevertheless, I noticed that when he looked on us, his face was shinning like a star and it seemed that he is really happy to find us at the old nursing home. I was anxious to ask him about his life style in the nursing home. I felt that he is not receiving a proper treatment at the nursing home. After meeting him, I asked him the same question about his life at the nursing home. He was sad that people at the nursing home are very much conscious about the provision of all the possible necessities of life but they do not care about the emotions of the elder people. The nursing home staff members take great care of the people but these old age people seek attention from them and thus want to talk to them. My grandpa said that it is seldom happen that someone talks to us in a detail. They are so much mechanical in their work and thus do not care about emotions and feelings. After listening to him, I at once decided to establish a nursing home, which is exact replica of their personal homes. I wish to own a nursing home, which considers these elderly people as the family related people and not just a resident of the nursing home. There are different perspectives about these nursing homes prevailed in our society. Some of the people do not like to keep their parents or grandparents in these old homes but on the other hand, there are many others who do not care about this issue and thus send their parents to the old homes without considering the environmental conditions of the old home (Weston, 56). I am the one who is not against the old nursing homes rather I want to modify the environment and the style of the nursing homes. I want that these nursing homes should have a home like environment because the old age people require facilities and necessities but above that, they need attention and particular care towards them. In addition, this care can only be provided if the behavior of the nursing staff is changed towards them. They should be not be so much mechanical that they do not pay attention towards anyone person who wants to talk to them. I want to properly train the nursing staff just like any other working person is trained to properly work according to the requirement. In the same way, I will try to introduce the special training programs for the staff members of the old age nursing home. According to some of the people, there should be specially designed environment for these old nursing homes so that elder people may feel relax and comfortable in the place. There should be a minimized level of noise so that the old age people may not feel any kind of irritation. There should a tight check and balance on the cleanliness issues of the old nursing home. The health issues arise only because of these untidy and unclean environments. These are some of the arguments, which are most important for the nursing home (Johnson, 3). Contrary to the opponent ideas, there are some of the people who really support these old age nursing homes without considering any special issue or problem in them. According to their point of view, if you have any old age person at your home then it is better to admit them at the old home because you cannot manage the responsibility along with the hectic job routines. Therefore, instead of keeping them at the home without any special care and even attention, you should keep them at the nursing home (Johnson, 3). In this way, they will be interacted with many other people of the same age. In this way, you would not have the burden of responsibilities and the personal care issues and thus you can spend quality time with them, whenever you will visit them at the old home. There is a long debate upon this issue of good verses bad side of the nursing homes. Apart from this, it is my motivation to modify the concept of the old nursing homes in the society. I will try to put my all efforts to make my dream possible. I want to spend my entire life for this ambition. Theory Relevant to My Ethical Issue: There are different theories, which are related to my ethical change making decision. This change making area is particularly service area and thus I want to provide better and modified services to the society. According to the person centered approach, every person wants to be known in the society. Every person wants to live with other people, want to meet and talk with them. This sense is also termed as the potential sociability of a person (Chmielewski, 2). According to this person centered approach, I will train the nursing staff to be with the patients or the elder people and thus treat them accordingly. Here the important consideration is that that the person centered approach does not rely upon any of the technique rather it is entirely dependent upon the capabilities of a person (Chmielewski, 2). In other words, this approach can be described as the people are the whole and sole caretakers of themselves. In this way, we can say that if an old age people want to live his life happily then it will not be considerable that he is living in the nursing home or at his own children’s home. The person centered approach says that a person can heal his wounds better than any other person in the world can. The only considerable thing in this person centered approach is that it is only workable if the particular person wants to heal himself. If he is not motivated to do so, than this approach is nothing. I will try to use this approach in my modified system of nursing homes where people will be motivated to live happy, as it is their own obligation. According to another theory of ethics, it is suggested that anything should be measured against its utility. This utility can be in the form of economics, well being, happiness or the lack of suffering from any problem. Therefore, the theory says that if any person getting maximum utility from anything then he or she should be happy about it. I as the ethical change maker will try to change the perception of old age people about the pursuit of happiness for them (Zwilling, 2). The theory of utility says that happiness actually depends upon the outcome of any decision or any step, which is taken. Therefore, nursing home should provide the full utility in the form of happiness, comfort and ease to the old age people who are trying to seek attention and care from these places. Therefore, it would be recommended that these elderly people do not feel that they are not happy at the place. This would be the ethical change at the nursing homes. Another perspective of ethical change at the nursing homes will be the virtue of ethics. This virtue of ethics means the sense of advising right and wrong deeds from one’s own personal point of view. In this way, we can say that a nursing home should have a staff, which have virtue of ethics (Ethical Challenges, 23). A virtual person is actually a person who contains ideal characteristics of the society. If I would be able and successful in the establishment of such a virtuous place in the form of old age nursing home then it will be very much beneficial for the community and the people. This virtuous nature is the most required ethical change which should be made right now with theses nursing homes so that old age people feel homely at these places (Ethical Challenges, 23). Another important consideration is the relationships among the individuals. The theory of ethical relationships is a little against the theory of people centered approach (Jaszi, 3). The people centered approach says that all the happiness and understanding of people is dependent upon the people’s own mindsets and thought pattern. Contrary to this, the relationship ethical theory suggests that people in the society are somehow dependent upon each other. They need other people in most of the cases just to share their sorrows and happiness. Therefore the nursing homes should work on this relationship and we must say ethical relationship building within their old age homes. These elder people require relationships and not the luxuries of the life. therefore I will try to make a nursing home which will accommodate maximum of the people and thus staff should be trained enough to make elder people comfortable and easy. Conclusion: In short, words, I can say that I have to make many of the ethical changes, which can thus change the current situation of the old age nursing homes. There is need to motivate old age people to live their lives on their own and not to depend upon others. In this way, they can remain happy at any place either at home or at nursing home. After that, there is a need to train the nursing staff in a way that they can make people more comfortable at the nursing home. At this point of time, they are working just like machines and nothing else. It is a fact that a person needs a sense of belongingness or togetherness so that he can be comfortable. In order to facilitate this feeling I will make sure public visit regular and free of cost at the nursing home so that different people can visit the nursing home just to meet these old age people. I hope to get a new and modified environment of the nursing home under my instructions. Works Cited: Weston, Anthony, (January 03, 2006), ‘A 21st Century Ethical Tool Box’, New York Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, Volume 2, Page number 34 - 67 Jaszi, Peter, (September 2009), ‘Honest Truths, Ethical Challenges’, Centre For Media and Social Impact, Web Accessed April 3, 2015 ‘Ethical Challenges’, (October, 2011), Journal of Ethics and Values, Volume 2, Number 5, Issue 3, page number 12 - 23 Johnson, Camille, (December 2012), ‘Unethical Behavior can Become Contagious’, Psychology Today, Web Accessed April 3, 2015 Zwilling, Martin, (November 17, 2013), ‘How to make an Ethical Difference’, Forbes, Web Accessed April 3, 2015 Chmielewski, Christine, (September 23, 2014), ‘The Importance of Values and Culture in Ethical Decision Making’, Clearing House, Web accessed April 3, 2015 Read More