The Physician-Patient Relationship

This information must be easy for the patient to understand and must also be correct and truthful (RCN 2013). The Department of Health define consent as allowing a capable individual to make their own decisions about their health care without being pressured into making any decisions from others such as friends, family and health care professionals. In the adult nursing field it is legal and ethical to gain valid consent before starting a medical procedure, or providing care. This shows that the individuals rights have been respected which is good practice. If a healthcare professional did not respect an individual’s choices they could be accountable to legal proceedings. In common law touching or performing an act of care on a patient without valid consent can be classed as a criminal offence or battery. If a healthcare professional was not following the legal practice regarding consent then the individual may be faced with a criminal offence and disciplinary action will take place (Dimond 2009). The Human Rights Act states that all healthcare professionals should never judge an individual on their sex, race, religion, social origin, language or any other status.

In the patient confidentiality case of Carlos, a 21 year old Hispanic male is being discharged from his hospital stay for a gunshot wound. Carlos is intended to receive nursing care at home from his sister, Consuela. Carlos is secretly a homosexual and is concerned that his secret will be revealed and be disgraced by his family. Carlos pleaded with his physician not to inform his sister that he is HIV-positive. Not informing Consuela would seem to increase her risk of contracting HIV while attending to Carlos’ wounds. The ethical issue is whether Carlos’ physician is justified in breaching confidentiality on the grounds that he has the “duty to warn”

If the patient is incapable of consenting it passes to the POA or the doctor to perform in their best interest.  Obtaining consent is a process and not a one-off event, beginning with making sure the patient understands your position as a student, and respect the right for individuals to request care to be provided by a registered professional (NMC, 2015). The RCN (2015), explains it is a legal requirement as all patients have a right to make their personal choice freely with no pressure or influence. Good communication techniques are needed in to develop rapport and enable the nurse to elicit information from the patient and show understanding without prejudicing their personal views (Brown et al. 2009). When dealing with vulnerable individuals effective communication is essential, a communication method by Gerard Egan (1975) ‘SOLAR’ is centred on non-verbal communication such as sitting, posture, leaning, eye contact and body language but regrettably it is not a sufficient representation for individuals who are blind as with the situation, verbal communication is most

The resident physician violated beneficence, because he did not do good by respecting the patient’s autonomy and he was being uncivil.

Prior to any research, it appeared that the Hippocratic oath was at the forefront of all medical events. Upon further research, however, it became increasingly obvious that the ideas of the Hippocratic oath were outdated and in need of redefining. While it is true that the oath has provided the basis for medical ethics for hundreds

There are many social factors that can impact on the Doctor Patient relationships everything from race to gender. To break it down and find five, I started with Doctors personal views he is under pressure to be ethical when he may not entirely be accepting of a person’s beliefs or sexuality. For instance a doctor may be homophobic and have a patient attend surgery asking for advice on practicing safe sex and being HIV aware. Following on from this may be a patients confidence in doctors due to race for example a person who has racist issues would not feel comfortable attending a foreign doctors surgery. To find a third I would have to say gender being a female I tend to talk easier to a female doctor, which persists problems as my female doctor only works three days a week so I put off going to see the male doctor so therefore remain ill longer. My fourth factor is age, as the doctor could be old and the patient adolescent. This would impact on different generations living different lifestyles and changing societies. “Adolescence is indeed a tempestuous period”, (Thorne, B & Lambers.1998). Finally I find language barriers a major social factor as if you can’t understand what your doctor is saying to you it has complications in treatment and there is not always a translator available.

When confidential patient information is disclosed without consent it is a violation of the HIPAA Title II Security Rule. This rule was enacted in response to private information being leaked to the news and emails containing privileged information were read by unauthorized people. Identity theft is a real concern so patient privacy should be taken seriously. This is a rule can easily be broken without the

According to the Oxford Dictionary consent is defined as ‘giving permission for something to happen or agreeing to do something’. They define confidentiality as ‘entrusted with private information and if something is intended to be kept secret or in confidence’ (Soanes and Hawker, 2005). As a healthcare professional consent and confidentiality are in place as protective vices, by gaining consent and keeping a patients confidentiality it protects both the patient and the healthcare professional. There are three types of consent: Verbal consent, consent in writing and implied consent. Depending on the situation each type of consent may not be acceptable. For example if a procedure is putting a patient at risk, is complex or invasive for example an operation, written consent is

The proper tort for complete failure of consent is called battery. Battery is intentional unpermitted touching. It boils down to is the healthcare professional needs to discuss with patient and get consent.

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

The doctors in this story preyed on the ignorance and emotions of others when consent was necessary. For

Exploiting patients is also discussed and can be called into question. When presenting examples or discussing patient’s certain information should never be disclosed due to HIPPA laws as well as confidentiality.

The importance of informed consent and physician-patient communication was highlighted. The procedure to be performed or other treatment options must be well-explained, and the implication and possible conflicts that may arise should be discussed in order to minimize the occurrence of difficult situations like the cases presented in this session. With the current healthcare system, however, where physicians are severely limited in how much they can spend time with the patient

The ethical footing in the professional-patient relationship, is vulnerable and requires protection. In Case 2: Nondisclosure of Prostate Cancer, truth-telling is selective. Why would a doctor be justified in lying to his patient? Doctors usually filter out, all sorts of information they deem irrelevant. In this case, the doctor lied to his patient. The doctor based this on the patient’s history of psychiatric disease. The more true information I have, the better I understand my position, and the more able I will be to make sensible judgments about what to do next.Dishonesty can consist of saying something, staying silent, doing something, or doing nothing at all. A healthcare professional to mislead a patient must constitute a violation of that patient’s autonomy. Patients don’t know how the body preforms in health and disease, which causes inaccurate ideas of what’s going on.

A patient signed an arbitration agreement before he say the doctor for his surgery and the surgery went bad and the patient filed for compensation due to effects from the wrong doings of the doctor. The court ruled that the arbitration agreement could not be upheld. This case shows what could result in someone not being able to read legal papers before they sign or not knowing they have the right to not sign said paperwork. The majority opinion for this case is correct. the wording on the arbitration agreement was one reason as well as the fact that a doctor-patient relationship was present when Mr. King signed said agreement. Also, there are many cases that help to support the majority opinion.