Medical Ethics And Health Care

Studies have shown that many factors have been contributing to influence patient’s care in an ethical manner. What factors could affects one decision for their medical care? Does it also included the nurse’s individual views or should consider their moral obligations? But what is ethics really is? Based on the book Nursing Ethics by Butts & Rich, “Ethics is a systematic approach to understand, analyze, and distinguish matters of right and wrong, good and bad, and admirable and deplorable as they relate to the well-being”. Ethics should follow the current AMA guidelines.

One of the major areas of strength of the AMA Code of Ethics is the principle that outlines that the physician must “regard responsibility to the patient as paramount” (American Medical Association, n.d., par. 9). This principle outlines that importance of putting the patient first in all care aspects when working with a patient. Along with this, other principles set forth in the AMA Code of Ethics, while involving other aspects of care, state that the rights of the patient shall be acknowledged and followed during patient care. It is very important that healthcare codes of ethics are clear in defining that the patient needs to be considered first and foremost.

Health care ethics is not only limited to factors that directly give rise to ethical issues such as not respecting a patient’s autonomy, and the beliefs and values of persons directly affected by decisions on the treatment of a patient. Ethical dilemmas are also posed by factors considered as indirect yet, very influential on health care ethics and can bring about a major ethical challenge. These indirect factors are considered to be external factors that influence health care ethics. These external factors can emanate from a sector such as the economy within which, is a great influence from market forces such as

Ethics is a strongly culturally linked area of philosophy interrelated with what is considered acceptable human conduct. There are two branches of ethics; medical ethics and bioethics. The moral conduct and principles which govern practices of medical and health professionals falls under medical ethics, whereas in biomedicine and the health sciences theorised developments in the study of social and moral issues is considered bioethics(1). There are two philosophical principles within the conduction of health care research these are deontology and utilitarianism. Deontology is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions (2). Utilitarianism states that the most benefit

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’

De Bord, J. (2014). ETHICS IN MEDICINE University of Washington School of Medicine. Retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/consent.html

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.

Lachman, V. (2010). Ethics, law, and policy. Clinical ethics committees: organizational support   for ethical practice. MEDSURG Nursing, 19(6), 351-353.

Weijer, C., Dickens, B., & Meslin, E. (1997). Bioethics for clinicians: 10. Research ethics. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 156(8),

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

Winslade. "Ethics in Medicine." Clinical Ethics. By A. R. Jonsen. 7th ed. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2010. N. pag. Print.

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

Morrison, E.E. and Monagle, J.F. (2009) Health care ethics: critical issues for the 21st century

The importance of an ethical basis for medical practice has been emphasized in recent years. Several groups and countries have called for a broadly embraced, basic curriculum in ethics for students in the medical profession (Lakhan, Hamlat, & McNamee, Laird, 2009). The United States has no standardized curriculum in medical ethics, but ethics courses are now common in medical schools (Lakhan, Hamlat, & McNamee, Laird, 2009). Professional groups, hospitals, and certifying or accrediting boards such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations have emphasized the importance of ethical principles through their mission statements and procedures (Stirrat, Johnston, Gillon, Boyd, 2010).