Ethical Issues in Health

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

Identify and explain two ethical issues/dilemmas in healthcare as identified and discussed in the scholarly literature (ProQuest, EBSCO,

Abortion, the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy through the agency of the mother, is a highly debated ethical issue. Abortion is an ethical issue because it involves violating the either the fetus’s natural right to live, or the mother’s right to freedom. The two most common approaches to this issue are pro-life and pro-choice. The pro-life approach argues that the fetus is a human who has sentience and natural rights, and therefore it is wrong to harm the unborn child. One of the most common issues within the abortion dilemma is the problem of personhood. There is debate over what qualifications the fetus must display in order to have the rights that come with moral personhood. One ethical principle that can be applied to the issue of personhood in relation to abortion is the Value of Life Principle. Under the Value of Life ethical principle, preservation of life takes precedence over all other ethical values. Therefore, according to this principle, if it can be determined that the fetus has the right to life, that right must be preserved. However, even if it is determined that fetuses have natural rights, the mother already has the same rights which creates conflict. The pro-choice approach argues that the fetus is a part of the mother, and therefore her rights to freedom and ownership of her own body are more important than a fetus’s rights. It cannot be argued that the mother is not a fully sentient being, and therefore, the mother’s rights are undeniable.

While visiting my mother in the hospital this past weekend, I was a witness to an event that was quite unsettling. A homeless gentleman, who looked to be about 35 years old, was asked to pay $150 upfront for medical services due to his lack of insurance. The man informed the medical assistant that he was homeless and did not have the funds, to which the assistant responded that no services would be rendered without pay and turned the man away. The man stated that he was experiencing continuous chest pains, which could be an early symptom of a more serious condition. However due to his lack of funds and the fact that he was uninsured he was not permitted to be seen by the doctor.

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

Teamwork- It has been found that relying too heavily on health information technology (IT) for communication can reduce teamwork (Yoder-Wise, 2011, p. 215). With the availability of information on the internet and computer software, nurses do not need to rely on co-workers or physicians for information. According to Yoder-Wise (2011), IT “will never eliminate the need for personal communication and teamwork” (p. 215).

According to Benatar, the ordinary "standard of care" against which new intercessions are tried in restorative research has not been formally characterized and is typically interpreted as meaning the "best demonstrated treatment" for any condition under scrutiny in a trial (Benatar, 2000).

When I first joined a surgical practice in the 90’s. I was brought in under a unique model. Most established practices at the time, would hire a new physician as an employee and after a set amount of time, allowed the physician to buy into the practice for a large dollar amount making them a full partner. I was hired with the guarantee that after one year I would be made a partner and receive my stock certificate to the limited liability corporation (LLC) for $1. During the first 2 years may bass salary was less than my partners to make up for the decrease productivity of a new doctor and the increased overhead associated with a practice start up. Some may consider this a buy in of some degree. Above our base compensation, each member

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. R who was brought in to the hospital due to a workplace injury. The referral was put through by the attending physician indicating that there was concerns of substance use. I started the conversation by introducing my role as a hospital social worker and tried to build report by asking Mr. R how he was managing at the hospital. Being transparent is important and explaining the reason for the visit helps in creating trust for the therapeutic intervention. I probed Mr. R about his alcohol use and if he identified that as being an issue for him. Mr. R indicated that he has been using alcohol for over a long period and reports this as a part of his daily social life, which makes it hard for abstinence.

Growing old and losing the ability to function independently is inevitable.  Aging is a part of life.  As adults grow old, they need increased assistance with daily living skills.  The elderly may need assistance with finances, cooking, washing clothes, and cleaning.  However, many Americans are not only aging but also acquiring dementia.  In a recent study from the funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), revealed that approximately 3.8 million people in the United States have some type of dementia National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2001). Dementia affects the ability to cognitively function

When faced with the choice of life or death, most people would choose to live. In fact, most would not want someone else making that decision for them. They would claim that as a living and independent entity it is solely their choice as to whether they continue to live or not. While this concept may seem fairly straightforward, there seems to be some great debate when it is applied to abortion. For many, they will maintain that the fetus has the right to life no matter the situation. There are some who will argue that abortion is morally permissible in specific circumstances and there are even those that will claim that abortion is always permissible. Why is there such a great divide? A major factor that plays a part in this is whether abortion involves more than one life. Because determining the beginning point of life is such a complex and emotional debate, there will be the same allowance in this paper as there was in Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”. As she eloquently put it “I propose then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception” (p. 721). This will allow for a look into the moral debate of abortion from a more grounded stage. As discussed early in Thomson’s paper, most of the debate on abortion rests on whether the fetus is alive or not. Whereas the focus should be on the many other aspects of pregnancies that may lead to a mother wanting an abortion.

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.

Thank you for reading my post and for your insightful comments, it is human nature to protect things and conditions that make us comfortable, however, doing so at the expense of others in the society is unethical or immoral. In my opinion, some people as well as businesses, tend to try and derail public policies that are unfavorable to them through various avenues; avenues such as, the use of Lobbyists to influence policies makers. Furthermore, the self-interest groups’ agendas couple with other bureaucratic issues that are inherent in the public health sectors of the government usually results in longer than necessary time for enacting changes to some public health policies.

Thanks for your informative post. The public health ethical issue you convey is an impactful since it concerns everyone beyond parents. The ethical dilemma pointed out is the high prevalence in collision among low-income young men being at higher risk than others. Nevertheless, the Joshua Brown Foundation strategic approach to remove bias is critical to take note, as they did not finger point at the high-risk population alone. Instead, the foundation imposed the mandate to include and benefit all public school driver program (utilitarianism); at-risk and the non-risk populations, which significantly reduces fatality collision.