Patient Ethical Dilemma

The community clinic has been a great experience to test our abilities and skills for the future as doctors of physical therapy. This opportunity helps students to get to know the strengths and weaknesses in real situations with patients. The community clinic is truly helpful and gives us, students, the chance of experiencing what our future jobs as physical therapy doctors will be like. The combination of practice, observation and feedback from classmates, professors and third year mentors gives a considerable amount of useful knowledge.

Ms. Dennis has been diagnosed with the type-1 diabetes mellitus twenty-one years ago. She has been on insulin therapy since then, however despite the adherence to the therapy, she was frequently hospitalized due to the ketoacidosis episodes. After she joined the diabetic program, she was better able to manage her life-style choices which help her to accomplish better therapeutic outcomes. Regrettably three years ago, Ms. Dennis went through a dreadful divorce followed by a loss of her executive position. Since then, she has been noncompliant with her insulin therapy as well as with her lifestyle modifications. She started to abuse alcohol and due to the poor diet choices, she also gained a lot of weight. The poor management of her disease state lead her to the frequent hospitalizations. Ms. Dennis’s physician referred her to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist recommended a behavior modification treatment which she completed, however, the treatment did not deliver a desired outcome. The physician becomes frustrated with her and considers severing the patient-physician relationships. However, before he does so, he contacts me, the pharmacist in charge of the diabetic counseling clinic, and asks me to help Ms. Dennis to manage her diabetes. The physician stresses that if I will not be able to get her to be compliant with the therapy, she will definitely die. I agree to it. However, despite coming to the clinic regularly for a year, Ms.

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 coordinated care of the patient involves organizing a Child Family and Team (CFT) meeting to facilitate the appropriate delivery of behavioral and healthcare services that meet the needs of the family. During the CFT, the patient, patient’s legal guardians, behavioral health providers, and medical team effectively communicate the appropriate delivery of healthcare and behavioral services. Updates about medical and/or behavioral concerns are faxed to the patient’s primary care physicians. In addition, case managers, clinical care managers, or family support partners make an attempt to accompany the family to the next schedule PCP appointment. This process facilitates both

Two other themes that were mentioned by at least six of out of the thirteen (46%) interviewees were safety and affordability. Although these themes were not as strong in the interviews, they had significant connections to the data in the surveys and community conversations.

After reading chapter 2, I learned that healthcare professionals need to be prepared and aware of the dilemmas that their career involve. One broad ethical and moral dilemma is abortion. This dilemma is very controversial because it’s discussed legally and religiously. There are pro-life supporters who claim that it is against religion to kill someone and believe that a fetus has a right to life, while pro-choice supporters claim that woman should have the legal right to make decisions regrinding her body. I think that healthcare professionals should always respect patients’ decisions and that people should also need to respect healthcare professionals’ set of values and morals. For example, some healthcare providers do not perform abortions

Although health care in the United States is considered to be one of the top ranking medical services, it is however becoming inadequate due to one fatal flaw: money (Vaughn 692). It is well known that a person admitted to the hospital, also admits their wallet, as the costs of certain procedures can be quite draining. However this is reality. There is no such thing as a health care system which “can provide maximum healthcare for everyone” (Vaughn 681). Therefore doctors must decide what is ethical and what is immoral when “costs restrict how much health care can be delivered” (Vaughn 681), to certain patients. This is the question in which Dr. Oz must ask himself as he is informed that his patient cannot afford a particular treatment; a

If staff members were fighting near a patient on the unit I would personally intervene and confront the situation. I would tell both of the staff members that I would like to speak with them. Once we were all are in a private area I would tell the staff members that if they have an issue with one another that they need to work it out privately and not in front of our patients. State that this is very unprofessional and that it should never occur. If I ever saw the staff members fighting again I would then take the issue to my charge nurse to let him or her know what was happening.

doctors. When a physician cannot come to a definite right, or ethical, conclusion, he or she may

Mercy killing can be one of the most relevant and talked about subject when dealing with the ethics of patient treatment. I am sure I would not feel comfortable ending the life of someone as it in my views it is not morally correct. However, there are many people who believe preventing suffering for others justifies the act of euthanasia. Also, patients can refuse treatment and die of natural causes although these are cases where they cannot decide for themselves. There are many factors to take in to consideration when looking at this issue. When it comes to ethics in many situations I feel as if I’m torn between what’s right and what’s wrong.

Clinical ethics is a term defined as the practice of helping solve ethical issues or problems within clinical medicine. Those who practice this, known as clinical bioethicists, are often faced with extremely difficult decisions. These choice include (but are not limited to): whether a patient is to be taken off life support or continued on it, end of life preparations, and determinations of medical futility. The matter of life or death is really placed in their hands, and clinical bioethicists are depended upon to make the right/best decision. When people “have difficult decisions to make regarding life and death” (Kind), these specialists are there to help ease the burden. “There is nothing personal or meaningful in this process” (Kind) of

The healthcare environment is a stressful one prone to conflict. Healthcare executives should be able to effectively manage and resolve conflicts amongst patients, staff, and family members. Ethical problems may arise from a conflict between the health care professional's ethical obligation to provide the utmost benefit for the patient, and the need to respect the patient's own informed choice regarding treatment. Sometimes the quality of a patient’s life is ignored due to pressure from the family to prolong their life. The codes of ethics designed by ACHE will act as guide to healthcare executives in resolving these conflicts when they arise.

Cases such as this are eventually resolved in court, but it does not close the gap in how to ethically handle future problems, or improve the current problems in death laws. This is where an ethics committee becomes the strongest asset to not only solve disputes, but do so in an ethical manner when policies provide little guidance and the public misunderstands the limitations of medical intervention.

You are right Louise, the patient’s rights are not to be ignored or disregarded. The patient’s wish was violated, not just that but her rights and religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness was not taken seriously by the physicians and nurses. In addition, no matter what the circumstances is, the patient has the right to make decision once she is able to talk. As health care professionals, our responsibilities are to protect, promote and respect the patient’s right as we served them. The physicians were being unethical by violating the patient’s rights of refusing or accepting treatment. The worst of all was downplaying her religious belief as Jehovah’s Witness. Besides, she has the right to refuse the transfusion of

AIDS is potentially the most viral disease globally. Millions of individuals retrieve this virus every year, unaware of the effects that could possibly lead to mortality. Consequently, developing countries cannot afford these expensive vaccines to reduce the production of AIDS, resulting in an increase in death rates. There is still a shortage of experts in the field of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), for doctors are still hesitant in treating infected patients. Fauci (2003) argues that HIV replicates in the lymphoid tissue of all infected individuals. He states that if we attack this virus ahead of time, more individuals would have a lower chance of mortality. The ethical issues discussed in this paper affect the relationship between doctor-to-patient