Assessment 3
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Capella University *
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4000
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Health Science
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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docx
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6
Uploaded by jjpr96
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Applying Ethical Principles
Joshua Miranda
Capella University NHS4000: Developing a Health Care Perspective Dr. Knapp
Nov 2023
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Applying Ethical Principles
Ethical principles are essential to those working in healthcare. These principles consist of 4 main pillars. Autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice. These principles are used as a guide when healthcare workers and medical professionals need direction when making a decision that will affect the patient especially a complex one. Overview of Case Study
Dr. Laura Simmons who is a licensed clinical psychologist, has been treating a patient named Alex Turner who is a 35-year-old software engineer for severe depression and anxiety over the past six months. Through these sessions Dr Simmons has been able to develop trust and open communication with Alex who shares his deepest fears and concerns with Dr. Simmons. During an intense session that occurred, Alex shares with Dr. Simmons that he has been having repeated thoughts of causing harm to his colleague due to a rivalry that they have. He shares with her that he has plans and is genuine on the intent to follow through on his thoughts. Dr. Simmons is faced with an ethical dilemma with her client in this situation, she understands that if she where to share this information her trust this Alex would immediately be broken. However, she also needs to exercise the ethical principles of beneficence and non-
maleficence. Beneficence is what causes her to make sure that she is acting in the best interest of her patient. Non-maleficence causes her to emphasize the significance of “doing no harm”.
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Analysis of Ethical Issues in the Case Study
In this case study, what led to the dilemma with Dr. Simmons was Alex sharing with her his intent to harm his colleague. When Dr. Simmons receives this information from Alex, she immediately starts to think about the person that Alex wants to harm and their protection. She also understands the importance of keeping the trust and open connection between her and Alex however the safety of the other person’s life is most important in this situation as well. Dr. Simmons also understands that confidentiality cannot be breached, so she talks Alex into having his colleague reach out to her about this matter. This allowed for the communication to remain open and for her to understand the conflict that his going on between the two of them without her
breaching any confidentiality and breaking the trust between her and her client Alex. Using the Ethical Decision-Making Model to Analyze the Case Study
There are 3 components involved in the ethical decision-making model, they are moral awareness, moral judgement, and ethical behavior all which help analyze the ethical issue in this case study. Moral awareness is knowing that there is an ethical dilemma, moral judgement includes choosing between what is right and what is wrong when facing a dilemma. Moral awareness and moral judgement both are included in ethical behavior. Ethical behavior is making
the decision that will lead to the resolution of the dilemma. Dr. Simmons became morally aware when she recognized the danger that was at hand when Alex shared his thoughts of harming his colleague. Dr. Simmons ethical behavior consists of the actions that she proceeded to take to resolve the dilemma. This turns her back to the four principles of ethics in health care which are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficnce and justice.
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Effectiveness of Communication Approaches in the Case Study
Effective communication is pivotal in patient and relationship communication. Because Dr. Simmons was listening, she was able to get to know Alex’s deeper thoughts. She then learns about the rivalry that is going on between Alex and his co-worker and how it was causing Alex to
have thoughts of harming his Co-worker. Dr. Simmons is aware that she is in a difficult ethical dilemma, if she reaches out to Alex’s co-worker no only will she be breaching the trust between her and her client but she also would be breaching confidentiality. She also recognizes that if she does not mention something another person could be harmed and is not safe. So, she decides to have Alex reach out to his co-
worker about his situation, she is able to maintain transparency with her client and also get the person that is potentially in harm’s way involved without breaching confidentiality. Dr. Simmons
did take a systemic approach in this situation and as a result she was able to avoid complicating the ethical dilemma that was at hand. Resolving the Ethical Dilemma by Applying Ethical Principles
The four pillars included in the principles of ethics within the healthcare field are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice together these help healthcare providers successfully resolve difficult ethical dilemmas. Autonomy is when the provider accepts and understands the patient’s values and beliefs. Beneficence is when the provider looks out for the welfare of the patient. Nonmaleficence refers to no harm being done to the patient and justice is when the provider is fair to the patient. In this case study, Dr. Simmons faces two of these ethical principles. She is faced with beneficence when she finds out about Alex’s thoughts of harming his co-worker. She is also
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faced with justice because it would not be fair to Alex if she where to share his thoughts and intentions without his permission. Conclusion
Ethics in healthcare are used to help analyze and resolved ethical dilemmas. In the case study I chose, Dr. Simmons had to decide if she was going to possibly breach confidentiality or allow harm to happen to another person. The solution that I came up with involved upholding the
principles of beneficence and justice to solve this ethical dilemma.
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References
sadi, N., Royani, Z., Maazallahi, M., et al. (2021). Being torn by inevitable moral dilemma: Experiences of ICU nurses. BMC Medical Ethics, 22
, 159. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00727-y
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