Governments and health care organizations must promote and safeguard resident autonomy to maintain quality of life. Moving forward, governments and health care organizations need to take the time to engage residents in decision-making and policy development that affects their care, treatment, and support system. This negatively affected residents' quality of life in the form of physical, mental, and cognitive health deterioration. In an attempt to prevent resident harm from COVID-19 cases and deaths, governments and continuing care facilities forced residents into isolation.

Governments and health care organizations denied them the dignity to experience the positive outcomes that result from risk-taking based on their personal values and preferences. The rights of continuing care residents were stripped away when they were not given the opportunity to make informed decisions regarding their care and day-to-day life. From an ethical lens, governments and health care organizations were focused on preventing harm through promoting beneficence and nonmaleficence however, this was at the expense of resident autonomy.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian governments and health care organizations implemented restrictions on continuing care residents.

Nonmaleficence ethical principle