Ethical Issues In Health Care

Patients have the right to self-determination and individuals should have control over their own lives. With respect for human autonomy comes respect for patient rights. Apart of the nurses job is to promote, advocate and protect the rights, health, and safety of our patients. Patients have the right to determine their health needs, make informed decisions, and the right to information regarding their treatment and also the refusal of treatment. Nurses are obligated to know the rights of a patient and to make sure the patient understands their treatment plan. Supporting patient autonomy includes making decisions in the best interest of the patient, considering their values and recognizing differences between cultures. In the treatment

Sule stated that, “The Patient Bill of Right adopted by American Hospitals Association states that ‘a patient possesses the right to be informed of the medical consequences of his or her actions and decisions and refuse treatment to the extent permitted by the law’. However, this is true only if the patient is in position to understand the consequences of his treatment. Incompetent, senile patients neither have the correct judgment regarding which treatment is appropriate for them, nor are they in a state of understanding the implications of their treatment. In such case, their willingness to grant or deny consent cannot dictate the course of treatment.” Problem with the Act is being able to find that the patient component enough to make such a call. Another issue that Sule stated was on confidentiality and autonomy. According to Sule, “This is another ethical issue erupting from the conflict of patient's rights and professional ethics in nursing job and profession. The Patient Bill of Right makes it mandatory for the medical practitioners to reveal the form and extent of the ailment along with the course of treatment to be undertaken by the practitioners. However, this law of autonomy clashes with the nursing ethic that the professional should maintain high degree of confidentiality regarding the patient's health and treatment.” This can cause conflicting issues in the NP’s

Autonomy includes three primary conditions: (1) liberty (independence from controlling influences), (2) agency (capacity for intentional action), and (3) understanding (through informed consent) (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 100). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2009) to respect autonomous agents, one must acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices, and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs (p. 103). Respect for autonomy implies thaturges caregivers to respect theassist a patient in achieving? Heed? the autonomous choices of their patients. From there, patients can act intentionally and with full understanding when evaluating medical treatment modalities. Autonomy also includes a set of rules, one of which requires that providers honor patient decision-making rights by providing the truth, also known as veracity (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 103). In this case, several facets of the principle of respecting autonomy, specifically veracity, informed

This paper will breakdown the difference between clinical and institutional ethics. How this can cause conflict between healthcare and society. Thus, providing an example of how healthcare professionals can be conflicted when trying to provide the best quality care or a compassionate treatment outcome.

Decision making in the setting of healthcare is influenced by ethical, legal and professional frameworks that provide standards of conduct by appealing to ethical principles, moral rights and virtues (Tonti-Filippini, 2011). These principles give credibility to decision making in healthcare with International and National frameworks (Tonti-Filippini, 2011). Examples include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Code of Professional Conduct, the Australian Charter of Heath and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Murray, 2009).

As a result, this challenges the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence. At some point in our lives, we will be a patient in one way or another. As patients, we have the legal right to decide what’s in our best interest when it comes to the management of our health. The concept of autonomy is centered on the idea of self-governance. This means that patients have the right to play an active role in their treatment and medical care plan and have the right to receive or refuse treatment, the right to confidentiality, the right to select a healthcare proxy and the right for informed consent.

Healthcare Administrators have an obligation to act in ways that will merit the trust, confidence and respect of health care professionals and general public. Therefore healthcare administrators should lead lives that embody an exemplary system of values and ethics. According to Gostin, (2001) “healthcare administrators have commitments and obligations to patients or other served to provide the best quality of care”. Healthcare administrators also have the responsibility to themselves, to their organization, to the clientele served by the organization, and to the employees who provided services at the organization to protect patients’ rights and their privacy.

In the Healthcare field there are ethical issues that arise daily. From balancing care quality to determining end of life issues, healthcare professionals are constantly trying to find a place of balance. Healthcare professionals do not have an easy job, they face challenging decisions every single day determining what is best for the patient and the organization. When an ethical dilemma arises within a healthcare organization, ethical decision making can help make an onerous decision easier.

To support my stand, I will use the Principlism approach articulated by Beauchamp and Childress (B&C) in their textbook principles of biomedical ethics (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). B & C thoroughly develop and advocate for four principles that lie at the core of moral reasoning in health care: respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. The reason behind selecting this approach is because these Principles derived from the “common morality” and thus, they are universally binding in all healthcare settings everywhere. The principles are binding regardless of the ethical theory one adhere to or believe in, because everybody recognizes the importance and the strength of the common morality. Consequently, the Principlism approach provides a means for proceeding with ethical analysis even when persons disagree in theoretical matters.

There are times that self-determination has opposition with the values and beliefs of health care providers. The five step ethical decision making model is in place for patients that are unable to make their own health care decisions due to incompetency; paternalism is not the method used anymore. “In relation to health care, paternalism manifests itself in the making of decisions on behalf of patients without their full consent or knowledge. (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008). Value systems, which includes a patients and family morals, play a factor in ethical decision making.

In order to ascertain the merit of managed health care, ethical presuppositions guiding our health care system require consideration. In the United States, four main principles undergird the way health care is practiced. These principles are: beneficence, nommaleficence, autonomy and justice. Beneficence is the obligation of health care providers to render help to people in need. Just as health care workers are called to provide care, they also have a duty to do no harm. This principle is commonly called nonmaleficence. At times, the possibility of doing good may result in injury. Therefore, the principle of beneficence and nonmaleficence do not always concur. Thirdly, the principle of autonomy allows patients to make choices regarding their health care. In other words, health care providers should allow patients to make the final decision regarding their treatment plan. Finally, justice refers to the ethical concept of treating everyone in a

Ethics in public health is different from ethics in acute care. In the acute care setting, the patient’s decision is followed through informed consent, while in public health, what the patient wants might not always be implemented because the

There are many ethical issues that may arise in regards to a patient's healthcare. These major issues as well as ways to manage them are as follows:  Privacy- The protection of private patient information in the medical field is one of the most important ethical problems that may rise in the field of healthcare. Discussions between a patient and a doctor are resolutely private and access to them is strictly checked. An ethics group needs to make sure that its patients' medical records are protected.

The major ethical theories would be autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. These four ethical theories direct the health care manager to take proper action and decision so healthcare provider not voiding the right of the patients and provide the treatments with the intention to do the best for the patient and differentiating individual circumstances into account, since, what is good for one patient will not necessary benefit another. Healthcare manager often conflicts with the decision made by medical practitioners in which manager typically represent a utilitarian view of ethics, best represented by the phrase “the greatest good for the greatest number.” This view allows managers to sacrifice the use of resources for one patient

It is widely accepted that competent patients should be able to make their own healthcare decisions. This claim is underpinned by the principle of respect for autonomy which is realised through processes such as informed consent and shared decision making. But what happens when the patient cannot participate in decision making;, under these circumstances whose voice should be heard? In the seminal text Principles of Biomedical Ethics Beauchamp and Childress (ref) frame decision making when the patient is incompetent as a problem of lost autonomy and the solutions they propose are