Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice
Grand Canyon University: Ethical Decision Making in Healthcare
Lisa Firkus
October 27, 2013
Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice
Care providers strive to provide care that is patient focused that maintains confidentiality and respect. This paper is about the maintenance of patient confidentiality and the trusting relationships that must be maintained between the patient and the healthcare providers.
Ethical Implications of Breaching Confidentiality
Patients seek care and treatment in hopes of receiving confidential, unbiased, honest, and respectful treatment. They also expect that care providers maintain their personal values and beliefs related to their care. As healthcare
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In this situation, honesty about testing and possible results should have been discussed with the patient and an informed, realistic action should have been explained. The next step would be to evaluate the relationship with the patient and her parents and encouragement of an open and honest relationship. If the patient were to continue to decide that the notification of the parents was out of question then resources to discuss the results of the testing with the patient's parents would have been an alternative. Care providers should guide care that is respectful of the individual, offer alternatives, provide concrete facts related to the care needs, and offer support systems that will aid in the making positive choices. The application of this framework allows the patients to experience the greater good with no harm. It provides a clear framework that fosters openness and honesty between the patient and the care providers.
Ethical committee An ethics committee is a consultation group that assists in the resolution of conflict and answers in moral and ethical questions related to patients. Ethics committee's tenants are based upon the principals of beneficence, to do good, non-maleficence, to do no harm, respect for autonomy, fairness, truthfulness, and justice. Their main goals are to promote the rights of patients, share
A common value shared throughout this community is allowing your patients to trust you with their health needs. Allowing them to trust you builds a relationship with the patients, as well as others in your profession.
To begin the understanding of confidentiality, the author first provided readers with a formal concept analysis on confidentiality. He explained how confidentiality did not truly become a concept of interested until 1961, when the general nursing guides made a small mention related to the concept in regards to privileged
Roles and responsibility of the work are adhered to. Personal information about patient are kept confidential except where it is necessary with other staff that care for the same patient or to the health care team attending to them.
The structure of an Ethics committee includes members and a chairman or chairmen. The membership size of the Ethics committee can vary and the size might reflect that of the institution it works through. It is important to the success of the committee that its membership be multidisciplinary. These providers could be physicians, social workers, nurses, chaplains, legal representatives and others who work in the institution. In an article by McCabe (2015) “there has been a movement to include patients as the community members. The inclusion of this group of individuals adds the patient voice to the discussion and keeps the committee focused on a patient-centered approach to its work” (p. 481). In this mix, it is certain that that there will be an assortment of ethical views to draw from. According to an article by Caitlin (2014) “a well-functioning ethics committee has no hierarchy and all members have equal voice” (p. 400). She also states, “ethics committee functions follow standards set by the professional organization for ethicists, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). Guidelines for consultations are delineated in the ASBH Manual for Core Competencies” (p. 398).
Due to the creation of ethics committee’s in acute care settings we now have a foundation of
Confidentiality is considered a core value or principal in the medical practice. Confidentiality is a right that all people have within the medical field. This is the requirement of health care providers to keep a person’s information exclusive unless the patient or the person consents in the form of a release to share that information with other people that practice. Usually the consent is given when a doctor wants to consult with a different doctor for example. In this case it would be for the betterment of the person.
The patients perception is important. For the most part the patients see their health care provider as being accountable for their consideration. Patients need to feel they are not surrendered in their troublesome time.
According to the AMA Journal of Ethics" ( ), Healthcare ethics committees (HCECs) is a body, "that mediate ethical disputes and dilemmas in patient care settings. HCEC's primary function is policy development, ethics education, and ethics consultation. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ethical committee is called the "Integrated Ethics (IE) program. The IE's functions are education, policy, consultation. They focus on improving ethical leadership, preventive ethics, and ethics consultation. Ethical committees can be used as a mediating force that can be utilized by patients, and healthcare staff including nurses, physicians, and healthcare administrators (Geppart, ). Members of an ethics committee usually include health care stakeholders,
Health care professionals are subject to a multitude of professional, legal, and ethical responsibilities which call for personal judgment to be utilized in such a manner as to protect clients as well as public wellness and interests. Overall considerations in handling such duties may be considered to be respect of a client’s autonomy, confidence, and recognition of obligations owed to all clients. While the aforementioned acts fall within the professional realm, there are also legal implications that guide care. Therefore, it can be said that ethical considerations occur in observation of legal responsibilities. Confidential information is perceived as private facts which are disclosed with the
In the medical practice, keeping confidential is strictly requested for physicians, as it favors positive communication between physicians and the patients they take care, leading to a good, long-term physician-patient
In any medical setting, it is essential to respect the patients’ autonomy. Any competent patient has the right to make decisions regarding his or her health. However, the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence also need to be considered. Respecting the patients’ autonomy does not entail a one-size-fits-all approach to truth-telling. Unfettered truthfulness or “truth-dumping” may not be in the patient’s best interest. Moreover, some cultures do not subscribe to the individualistic principle of patient autonomy and family members are significantly involved in the patient’s decision-making.
The concepts of dignity, diversity, and ethics are interspersed within health care because it is a field that revolves around the care of humans. On the other hand, it is also a field in which humans collaboratively take care of humans; and with that comes human error, bias, and imperfection. For example, the provision of “excellent” care to patients is the expected outcome; however, the definition of this “excellence” can be interpreted differently based on individual or institutional beliefs. Therefore, the key in the delivery of excellent patient care is the ability for each individual to self-reflect and learn through each and every experience what it truly takes to preserve the “self-worth” and needs of every human being.
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.
Confidentiality is central to trust between doctors, medical team and patients. Patients have a right to expect that information about them will be held in confidence. The birth of the Hippocratic Oath in the fourth century started the responsibility of physicians to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of their patients. One of the provisions of the Oath lays the ethical foundation for the physician’s duty of confidentiality even beyond the circumstances of medical care. The Florence Nightingale Pledge, which was composed in 1893, was a modification of the “Hippocratic Oath,” a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession. Included in the pledge is to hold in confidence
The structure and size of an Ethics committee varies based on the size of the institution but always includes various intra-professional members and a chairman or chairmen. It is important to the success of the committee that its membership be multidisciplinary. These providers could be physicians, social workers, nurses, chaplains, legal representatives and others who work in the institution. The current trend is to include patients as the community member. In an article by McCabe (2015) “there has been a movement to include patients as the community members. The inclusion of this group of individuals adds the patient voice to the discussion and keeps the committee focused on a patient-centered approach to its work” (p. 481). In this intra-professional mix, it is certain that that there will be an assortment of diverse ethical views. According to an article by Caitlin (2014) “a well-functioning ethics committee has no hierarchy and all members have equal voice” (p. 400). She also states, “ethics committee functions follow standards set by the professional organization for ethicists, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). Guidelines for consultations are delineated in the ASBH Manual for Core Competencies” (p. 398).