Question
A client with a new cancer diagnosis tells the nurse privately that they want to pursue only comfort-focused care, but the client's adult children insist on aggressive treatment and ask the nurse to convince the client to agree. What is the nurse's priority action?
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The nurse acts as the client's advocate by supporting the client's own expressed wishes, since a competent adult's right to accept or decline treatment takes priority over family preference. The nurse should not pressure the client toward the family's chosen path; instead, the nurse facilitates an honest conversation between the client and family, involves the provider and, if needed, palliative care or an ethics resource, so the client's voice is heard directly rather than filtered through family pressure. Advocacy here means protecting the client's autonomy, not mediating toward whichever outcome the family prefers.
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