Ethical Issues In Health Care

For example, the Hippocratic oat, the prayer of Moses Maimonides, the bible, the Holy Koran, and the Islamic legacy, as well as cultures, traditions, and social morality have shaped and guided the development of ethical standards in the medical profession. The majority of these historical documents focus on “avoiding harm to patients” Ethics refers to a professional moral conduct. Ethics, particularly professional ethics, describes the moral actions based on professional character and ethical principles in each profession. The statements of medical ethics require the health care providers to do what is best for the patient and place the patients’ interests before the interests of the physician. Above all, the purpose of medical ethics is to protect and defend human dignity and patients’

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the Affordable care Act from President Obama gives consumers more options and benefits when seeking coverage from insurance company. It offers lowering cost as well as gets more access to high quality of care. This law creates Patient’s Bill of Rights that is very effective to protect consumers from any abuses or fraud from insurance company. Some preventive services are available to many Americans especially Medicare recipients at no cost. Not just that, they also receive a special offer of 50 percent discount for any well-known drugs in the market place under Medicare named “donut hole.” The Affordable Care Act helps other organizations and programs to convince healthcare providers

As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in the medical field, it becomes apparent that medicine and ethics have a unique and pertinent relationship. Everyday doctors, nurses, and other health care workers have to make ethical decisions or help families make ethical decisions for their patients. For example, in the video that featured bioethicist Toby Schonfeld, she discussed some of the ethical dilemmas faced in hospitals today. The most notable ethical conflicts she noted were physician assisted suicide, and other dilemmas such as transferring a patient to palliative care, or whether someone should get a pacemaker or not. Perhaps, in my future I will face similar ethical problems and will have to figure out a way to draw a conclusion that is the best for both the patient and their family.

Ethics are a set of moral principles that serve as a guiding philosophy for behavior. Consequently it is not a surprise that ethical dilemmas occur daily in the health care setting. Any nurse who refuses to provide care for a patient faces an ethical dilemma (Kuhn, 2012, pp. 412-418). The reasons given for refusal range anywhere from a conflict of personal values to fear of personal risk of injury. Nurses do have the right, at times, to refuse patient care assignments. The decision to accept or reject an assignment must be based upon a judgment by the nurse of the nurse 's ability to provide competent patient care. This paper aims to show both sides of the argument when it comes to nurses refusing a patient assignment. One side believes that nurses has the right to refuse patient assignment, as they must be true to themselves if they want to perform their best on the job. On the other hand, the other side believes that it is the nurse’s responsibility to care for all patients and, therefore nurses cannot simply refuse a patient.

I blew the whistle in this situation when the lack of ethical care for residents and work ethics fell short of the normal standards. As a care provider one must always be aware of that the dignity of the client when it comes to their care. I return to my regular position after three months of working graveyards to find that the residents were being brought to the dining room in the hospital gowns. There was no regard for the resident’s dignity. Their backs were exposed and often the gown was exposing their chest. No one took in count how the resident must feel going into the dining room so exposed. The staff could of a least put on clothing over top of the gown or a sweater to hide what they were wearing. And use a lap blanket so they

The term “medical ethics” is defined by The American Medical Association as “(1) moral principles or practices and (2) matters of social policy involving issues of morality in the practice of medicine.” The nine principles of medical ethics as outlined by the AMA tell how a physician should conduct themselves in the profession, the third and fourth of which states “(3) A physician shall respect the law and also recognize a responsibility to seek changes in those requirements which are contrary to the best interests of the patient. (4) A physician shall respect the rights of patients, colleagues, and other health professionals, and shall safeguard patient confidences and privacy within the constraints of the

I talked with a couple of mental health professionals within the local area in which I live, I asked each of them form their perspective weather or not they work with insurance companies, what are the advantages of insurance panels, what are the struggles. One of the mental health care professional stated that some of the disadvantage being involved with insurance panels is the enormous amount of paper work that involved that must be prepared. This was one of her most frustration in work with insurance planes other than waiting to paid especially when it come third party payer. Also, the amount of wages which is non-negotiable, because the insurance company set their own pay rates which is considerably less that

Ethical issues and concerns are ever-abundant in the field of helping professionals with never just one way to answer them. The most popular response is most likely, “It depends”. Some of the main issues are somewhat cut-and-dried such as confidentiality, documentation, referrals, and multiple relationships. For these, you learn the do’s and the don’ts, and when you can or you can’t. The primary obstacle I foresee for me is contending with the changing methodologies for delivering mental healthcare. The trends Cormier, Nurius, and Osborn (2009) introduce imply that “fewer and larger managed care organizations” are attempting to ‘streamline’ how human behavior and its subsequent care is supplied (p. 41).

The ethical dilemma I encountered at my placement involves a male in his late-sixties, who has recently suffered a stroke. Mr. A’s situation is unique as he has been unable to speak and his cognitive abilities have declined since. The Fraser Health agency protocol is to contact the patient’s family to determine who would be the temporary substitute decision makers (“Information for temporary substitute,” 2015). The health care consent and care facility admission act describes how decisions are to be made if a patient is determined incapable (Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre, 2012). The next steps required liaising with the home health team in the community to determine if Mr. A had ever listed any family members as his emergency contacts.

Nurses are constantly challenged by changes which occur in their practice environment and are under the influence of internal or external factors. Due to the increased complexity of the health system, nowadays nurses are faced with ethical and legal decisions and often come across dilemmas regarding patient care. From this perspective a good question to be raised would be whether or not nurses have the necessary background, knowledge and skills to make appropriate legal and ethical decisions. Even though most nursing programs cover the ethical and moral issues in health care, it is questionable if new nurses have the depth of knowledge and understanding of these issues and apply them in their practice

The code of medical ethics was written with the intention of standardizing the expectation for ethical behavior throughout every professional medical setting within the United States. This collection of ethical principles was intended for physician and patient alike, so that there would be a thorough understanding of the expectations of both parties within the medical setting. Rules concerning the subject matter should be shaped according to the recommendation of experienced physicians, past and present, including Hippocrates. Importance is placed on medical case history which has, and will continue to, shape the ethical code,

I have spent a good deal of time in the past week reflecting on my emergency medicine clerkship experience, specifically in regards to illustrative ethical situations I have encountered. Despite by best efforts, I could not come up with a true “ethical dilemma” I encountered, in the sense that there was never a situation in which there was significant doubt or disagreement between the healthcare team and/or patients and their families about the proper or ethical course of action. In many ways, this is fortunate. Nevertheless, there were several cases that did serve to illustrate some of the core ethical principles in action that would be useful to discuss. One in particular that comes to mind involves the question of advanced directives and

There is one issue that I could think of that is challenging regarding to patient care throughout my preceptorship this week was one of the patient in my unit refuse to come out of her room to receive treatment and allowing the lab technician to draw her blood. The patient already refuses to go to the cafeteria in the morning to have her breakfast because she said she was having a back pain. When the nurse asks us to have her go to the treatment room for her assessment, she refuses to come out from her room again. Until the lab technician arrived in the unit for lab work, I have gone to her room and ask her to come to the treatment room again for the lab work, she did not respond. I cannot tell whether she was breathing this time because she

Everyday, healthcare professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas in their workplace. These ethical dilemmas need to be addressed in order to provide the best care for the patient. Healthcare professionals have to weigh their own personal beliefs, professional beliefs, ethical understandings, and several other factors to decide what the best care for their patient might be. This is illustrated in Mrs. Smith’s case. Mrs. Smith is an 85 year old who has suffered from a large stroke that extends to both of her brains hemispheres which has left her unconscious. She only has some brain stem reflexes and requires a ventilator for support. She is unable to communicate how she wishes to proceed with her healthcare. Mrs. Smith’s children, Sara and Frank have different views regarding their mother’s plan of care. The decision that needs to be made is whether to prolong Mrs. Smith’s life, as Sara would like to do, or stop all treatments and care, as Frank feels his mother would want. In the healthcare field, there are situations similar to this case that happen daily where moral and ethical judgment is necessary to guide the decision that would be best for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss, compare and contrast the personal and professional values, ethical principles, and legal issues regarding Mrs. Smith’s quality of life and further plan of care.

This edition consists of nine chapters divided into three parts, as well as an appendix of ten biomedical ethics cases. In Part I, chapter 1, entitled "Moral Norms," introduces the decision-making framework with attention to specifying and balancing principles and rules for moral deliberation and decision-making. Chapter 2, entitled "Moral Character," elaborates on moral virtues and ideals as an often-neglected area in biomedical ethics. In Part II, chapters 3 through 6 present the four basic groups of principles, and chapter 7, "Professional-Patient Relationships," examines the moral rules of veracity,