Annotated Bibliography On Healthcare Ethics

Working in healthcare requires an overall ethical compass to keep the law and order. As a healthcare professional, I rely on Consequential ethics, Normative ethics, and Applied ethics to influence my morality. Consequential ethics, one of the theories that center around achieving the greatest good for most of those involved states that the overall benefits should outweigh the risks. Healthcare is an industry that is patient centered. Organizations such as The Joint Commission apply these ethical standards when surveying facilities and hospitals to give accreditation or penalty. The importance of this theory stems from the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence or do no harm. If a facility is understaffed and has poorly educated workers

For this discussion, I have chosen to explain how Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, La. promotes ethical behavior during everyday patient care. There are many key expectations required by Ochsner in order to promote ethical behavior. Ochsner Health System believes the most valuable asset is their employees and they understand that positive ethical behavior will reflect on patient care. Ochsner also takes time daily to recognize any work that is well done of employees. Ochsner offers an achieved leadership team that come from a range of backgrounds and is appreciated throughout the healthcare market and community. As an organization, Ochsner has always been committed to learning and advancing within the healthcare. Their leaders are encouraged

A philosophy of an organization helps differentiate themselves from their competitors and set a foundation for future success. It also helps shape an organization by presenting the goals they want to accomplish with specific activities. To improve this, many organizations understand the important of sharing values and goals and realize employee recognition. This helps staff from moving forward toward success of the organizations. Chapter 4 introduces “Codes of Ethics in Health Services.” Code of ethics is a guideline for healthcare professionals to accomplish and serve as a member of a society. Similar to other professions, managers have their own code of ethics in maintaining their duties and responsibilities. They also use the codes for ethical decision-making in dealing with ethical issues. Chapter 5 deals with “Organizational Responses to Ethical Issues.” It provides assistance for managers and organizations in their decision making. It is manager’s duty to figure out the problem and resolve it (Darr, 2011,

Executives regularly encounter a variety of ethical issues-- from organizational issues, such as interactions with suppliers, to the complex clinical issues of end-of-life patient care decisions. To ensure these wide-ranging ethical decisions are being made effectively and in the best interest of patients, employees and the community, healthcare leaders need to set the ethical tone of the organization.

Leaders in healthcare organizations are often faced with a variety of ethical issues. Ethical considerations will be discussed from a leadership perspective. The ethical considerations related to this case are the responsibility to patients, responsibility to employees, and responsibility to the organization. Responsibilities to patients includes providing quality care that meets established standards, ensuring there are mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the performance of healthcare personnel, hiring and retaining competent professional staff that meet licensing and accreditation standards, and consistently reviewing, researching, and implementing evidence-based practices. This case fails to demonstrate ethical conduct in terms of responsibilities to patients specifically in regard to staffing, which, in turn affects quality of care. Responsibilities to employees include providing an adequate and safe work environment, ensuring that employees are equipped with equipment, facilities, and sufficient staff to perform their duties within the established standards of care, promoting the appropriate use of employee’s knowledge and skills, and providing a mechanism for employees to voice ethical concerns. This case fails to meet this ethical standard as evidenced by not providing sufficient

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), has a strong impact on ethical decision making because they focus on the “entire being” of the healthcare professional. For example, in ACHE’s preamble of The Code of Ethics it states, “In fulfilling their commitments and obligations to patients or others served, healthcare executives function as moral advocates and models.” Imagine, when a healthcare administrator recites these few words, he cannot help but acknowledge the depth of his commitment and the high level of morality that is expected from him. Because of the vast number of complex ethical dilemmas that arise, ACHE further promotes the value and importance of strong ethical decision making in ACHE’s Ethics Toolkit. “When the ethical guidelines are not enough, when there is uncertainty about the proper ethical approach, and when there is a need to develop additional

According to Morrison E. And Furlong B. (2014), hospital ethics committee is one of the most important group that exist within a health care organization. Today, ethics committee are become more of use due to ongoing ethical conflicts. In addition, more health care organizations such as, hospitals, nursing homes facilities, and managed care are reaching out to this group for better assistance (Morrison E. & Furlong B. 2014). It is also understood that ethics committee serve major roles including, developing standards and policies, improve and promote education, and orchestrating clinical consultations. The underlying goals of traditional ethics committees are: to promote the rights of patients; to promote shared decision making between patients,

“If you don’t have integrity, you have nothing. You can’t buy it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing”. –Henry Kravis - The American healthcare system delivers some of the finest care in the world. However, despite the high level of achievement delivered from the American healthcare system, it is afflicted with problems. Ethical issues that occur in the healthcare delivery system are indeed common. Almost every decision that is made in a healthcare organization has ethical implications. These ethical implications are towards the patient, provider and the leader of the organization. Ethics tend to determine which actions will contribute to an individual fulfillment of happiness. Ethics are very powerful and tend to presuppose freedom and responsibility in the organization. In my current place of employment the care of patients is integrated with medical research, which in return allows for the healthcare practices to continuously be studied and improved. As a healthcare leader or worker, decisions will be made when the common good of both the patients and organization must be taken into consideration. As an effective healthcare leader one must practice adhering to the ethical standards and codes of conduct for his or her individual place of employment. According to Rae (2009), there are 7 steps in making moral decisions. The seven

While the nursing profession is fulfilling, it is not without challenges. Nurses are faced with a multitude of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice on a daily basis. According to Fant (2012) no matter where nurses function in their diverse roles, they are faced with ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. Some examples of moral issues that nurses encounter in contemporary nursing practice and research include but not limited to: refusal of treatment, scarcity of resources, disagreement with caregivers, treating patients with impaired decision-making, futile treatment decisions for cancer patients, end-of-life decisions, advanced treatment directives, and euthanasia (Leuter, Petrucci, Mattei, Tabassi, & Lancia, 2013).

Ethics are rules of conduct and moral principles of an individual which have various origins such as family, culture, and social environment. Given the diversity of people in the healthcare profession and the importance of providing care that is ethically sound

Any member within the healthcare environment may be conflicted with some ethical decisions that have to be made. Ethics committees have been developed, and are required due to the number of ethical issues that present daily within hospitals and other health institutions. These committees are comprised of persons who assist patients, their families, and healthcare personnel in identifying, understanding, and quickly resolving ethical issues. Policies, procedures, and ethic codes are formulated around moral principles of beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice.

Ethical behavior is virtuous and beneficial for business in any type of organization. In healthcare, the outcomes are improved patient care, dedicated staff and healthcare providers, and amplified market share. It obliges leaders, managers, directors, and supervisors to have a comprehensive interpretation of the role of ethical decision making (Winkler, 2005). Ethical health care organizations have incorporated and combined ethical practices and values, continuing education on ethics for everyone involved, successful ethics substructure, and morally spirited and dauntless leaders (Winkler, 2005). These organizations have a vision and statements that directs behavior and decision making.

Ethical Codes are in use today by many organizations to clearly establish their values and provide a procedure if a code violation occurs. Medical ethics began as a professional code for physicians and has now expanded and includes a variety of health care professions and health care organizations. The growth of medical knowledge and technology have grown so have the concerns that ethical standards and issues facing our society today may be compromised or not appropriately addressed (Littleton et al., 2010).

Professionals in every field are always confronted with some kind of ethical issues. It has however been noted that these ethical issues become high in magnitude and extent when public officials are involved. Due to the involvement of human life, an industry like healthcare holds ethics in highest regard. Even though these healthcare practitioners are highly trained to deal with issues of these kinds, their decisions can sometimes have a lasting impact on their professional and personal lives (Edwards 2009).

Moral and ethical integrity is a major factor that affects the success and productivity of an organization because of its impact on the functions of management and the management team. As organizational ethics has increasingly become an issue of major focus resulting in organizations to face huge dilemma, there have been several questions on who should manage ethics and integrity in the firm (Segon, n.d.). In most cases, organizations tend to delegate the ethics function to the human resource management practitioners or department. This is primarily because organizational ethics is largely related to the type of employees within an organization. Notably, the development and establishment of organizational ethics is regarded as a complex