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Resolving ethical dilemmas
The importance of working to ethical and professional standards in health care
The importance of working to ethical and professional standards in health care
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In general, four main principles outline the ethical duties of a health care professional (Morrison, 2015). They include: Autonomy: to respect the staff members and patients, to give them the freedom to make their own decisions. Beneficence: to aim to benefit staff and patient’s health. Non-maleficence: to not inflict harm on patients and staff. Justice: to treat all the patients and staff members fairly, and equally distribute required resources as much as possible. Evidently, in this case, there was a violation in two of the above principles, Autonomy and Nonmaleficence. Autonomy: Autonomy is “concerned with how individuals are viewed and treated within the healthcare system” (Morrison, 2016, p. 32). Every individual in the health care …show more content…
sector should be given respect irrespective of age, income, socioeconomic, and occupational status. But in this case of novice nurse, the supervisor did not give respect to Lawanda although she being a co-worker in the hospital. The supervisor blamed Lawanda of the entire event that occurred in ICU. Giving respect to all the staff members and patients is an ethical rule and would serve as potential solution for the issue. Secondly, when considering autonomy as the ethical principle, “one should always weigh the benefit against harm before disclosing the absolute truth” (Morrison, 2016). The way the manager dealt with Lawanda’s parents was not correct. The manager called Lawanda’s parents and directly informed the truth that she is dead. As a result of which Lawanda’s parents accused the hospital of killing their daughter and this ultimately led to negative publicity of the hospital. Rather, the manager would have directly met the parents and explained the situation by delivering truth in a right way, considering the after effects of situation. This would have protected St. Dismas hospital from negative publicity. Therefore, “Professionals in healthcare often have to give bad news about a condition or treatment and even news of impending death” in a appropriate way (Morrison, 2016). Nonmaleficence: The principle of nonmaleficence assures the responsibility of health care staff to avoid causing harm to the patient (Morrison, 2016).
Although Lawanda Person never intended to do any harm, her careless attitude and negligence towards checking medication before injecting the contents of a syringe into an IV line led to unintentional death of the patient. In her urgency to save the life of a patient, Lawanda ignored an important procedure. Without any further thinking, Lawanda injected the medication given by the nurse beside her. This clearly shows that Lawanda was not the only person to make an error here. The nurse who was responsible for procuring the drug failed to check to make sure that she had the appropriate medication before handing it over to Lawanda. Both Lawanda and the nurse who assisted her should have verified the medication before injecting it into the patient. So that harm would have been prevented from occurring. Therefore, periodic staff education concerning their responsibilities or actions, evaluation of staff duties by the management, following well-designed protocols of ethical conduct, taking advice from the ethics committee members when faced with challenging nonmaleficence situations, would be a potential solution to prevent such ethical issues in future (Morrison, …show more content…
2016). The other significant issue in nonmaleficence is from the staff’s perspective.
“Health administrators have an ethical obligation to provide a working environment that is safe and does not harm employees” (Morrison, 2016, p. 56). It was not ethical from the supervisor’s perspective to blame Lawanda alone for the error without knowing the actual underlying cause of the situation. The supervisor accused Lawanda of killing the patient and warned her that she should report herself to the state board of nursing. Threatening the novice nurse with jail time and suspension was not correct. The supervisor demonstrated a lack of empathy towards Lawanda and harassed her, ordering her to finish the shift without understanding her feelings of grief. The supervisor’s actions led to the death of Lawanda. This explains that the supervisor caused an intended harm to Lawanda through her actions, which is unethical. Hence, it is the responsibility of a health care administrator to promote a healthy work environment that is free from harassment, imposition, and discrimination (ACHE Code of Ethics,
2011).
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical reasoning. Inside these connections, it is the limit of a sound individual to make an educated, unpressured decision. Patient autonomy can conflict with clinician autonomy and, in such a clash of values, it is not obvious which should prevail. (Lantos, Matlock & Wendler, 2011). In order to gain informed consent, a patient
Beauchamp and Childress (2012) defined autonomy as self-ruled, self governance or self determination. John Peter Smith hospital did not respect the advance wishes of Mrs. Munoz. Although Marlise did not have a formal advance directive Mr. Munoz, her surrogate, continued to advocate her wishes . Mrs. Munoz right to autonomy
The Lewis Blackman Case: Ethics, Law, and Implications for the Future Medical errors in decision making that result in harm or death are tragic and costly to the families affected. There are also negative impacts to the medical providers and the associated institutions (Wu, 2000). Patient safety is a cornerstone of higher-quality health care and nurses serve as a communication link in all settings which is critical in surveillance and coordination to reduce adverse outcomes (Mitchell, 2008). The Lewis Blackman Case 1 of 1 point accrued
Patient autonomy was the predominant concern during the time of publication of both Ezekiel and Linda Emanuel, and Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma's texts. During that time, the paternalistic model, in which a doctor uses their skills to understand the disease and choose a best course of action for the patient to take, had been replaced by the informative model, one which centered around patient autonomy. The latter model featured a relationship where the control over medical decisions was solely given to the patient and the doctor was reduced to a technical expert. Pellegrino and Thomasma and the Emanuel’s found that the shift from one extreme, the paternalistic model, to the other, the informative model, did not adequately move towards an ideal model. The problem with the informative model, according to the Emanuel’s, is that the autonomy described is simple, which means the model “presupposes that p...
Alan Goldman argues that medical paternalism is unjustified except in very rare cases. He states that disregarding patient autonomy, forcing patients to undergo procedures, and withholding important information regarding diagnoses and medical procedures is morally wrong. Goldman argues that it is more important to allow patients to have the ability to make autonomous decisions with their health and what treatment options if any they want to pursue. He argues that medical professionals must respect patient autonomy regardless of the results that may or may not be beneficial to a patient’s health. I will both offer an objection and support Goldman’s argument. I will
This provides people with control over their health care when they cannot speak for themselves. In other words, a health care directive is a legal document recognized by a legislative body to promote autonomy (The Health Care Directives Act, 1992). Autonomy is described as the quality to function independently (Mosby, 2013). Autonomy is the fundamental concept of health care directives, it allows people to openly express their personal values and beliefs, without judgement of health care decisions, “…autonomous decisions as those made intentionally and with substantial understanding and freedom from controlling influences” (Entwistle, Carter, Cribb, & McCaffery, 2010). When all information is provided, the individual can make an informed decision about their health care and have a right to no influencing factors. The health care directive document provide people the opportunity to consent to or refuse treatment and who will have the authority to make decisions on the individual’s behalf if unconscious, or mental incapacity arise (The Health Care Directives Act, 1992). In order to fully practice autonomy, especially in regards to health care directives, the appropriate mental development is key to comprehending
In this essay the author will rationalize the relevance of professional, ethical and legal regulations in the practice of nursing. The author will discuss and analyze the chosen scenario and critically review the action taken in the expense of the patient and the care workers. In addition, the author will also evaluates the strength and limitations of the scenario in a broader issue with reasonable judgement supported by theories and principles of ethical and legal standards.
Personal autonomy refers to the capacity to think, decide and act on one's own free initiative (Patient confidentiality & divulging patient information to third parties, 1996). For a patient’s choice to be an autonomous choice, the patient must make his choice voluntarily (free of controlling constraints), his choice must be adequately informed, and the patient must have decision-making capacity (he must be competent) (Paola, 2010), therefore Physicians and family members should help the patient come to his own decision by providing full information; they should also uphold a competent, adult patient's decision, even if it appears medically wrong (Patient confidentiality & divulging patient information to third parties, 1996).
..., beneficence, non-maleficence and justice help us understand and explain which medical practices are ethical and adequate. These principles are used to protect the rights of a patient and the physician from being dishonored. The principle autonomy allow an individual to act freely in accordance to their self-chosen plan. This means that healthcare providers must always get the patients consent before making any decision about patient’s life. The of non-maleficence states one must cause no harm to an individual. This means that we must always restrain from harming others. The principle of beneficences say that one must always promote good. This means that healthcare providers must always do what is good for the patient. Lastly the principle of justice promote fairness and equally. This mean that healthcare providers cannot act in a prejudice manner toward patients.
Autonomy is known as free-will, freely allowing their patient to form their own opinion about their own
The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses has five elements that pertain to the Principle of Autonomy. Each individual element applies to “respect individual persons” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett T, M., Garrett R. M., 2013, p.33). In Chapter 2 of the Health Care ethics: Principles and problems text, it discusses thouroghly the consent of an individual to make their own decisions regarding their health and future requests of care. As a nurse or within all heath care professions, we must treat each individual patient with care, respect, and to remain mindful to the patient regarding any aspect of their lives. In the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses, it explains ways of maintaining the empathy required in the health field. It further discusses that the respect for human dignity must be a priority, relationships to patients must remain neutral, the severity of the situation, the right to self-rule, and the professionalism that must be upheld by the nurse and their associates.
The patients under Sarah ’s care have the right to be treated and expect safe and effective care. The superiors have the right to a competent employee who will not cause harm to the patients and/or the facility. The facility has the right to expect non-dangerous actions by their employees.
There are many incidents in the healthcare field where a patient or a worker can be injured or their safety is at risk. This 32 year old nurse at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). She works towards the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. When she finished her studies in nursing, she was an intern at Kinshasa’s General Provincial Referral Hospital where she first contracted HIV. One day, she accidentally pricked herself with a needle used on a HIV positive patient. She was unaware that this patient was HIV positive, but she reported the incident to her nursing officer. When she told him what happened, he advised her to get get a blood test. Her results were negative. Her intern year was over and she
Autonomy is defined is defined as having control over one’s self. This has become the governing principle that healthcare providers strive to practice when it comes to their relationships with their patients. Giving patients the controls over their own body allows them to choose the direction they believe will be best for them, while also allowing the provider to ethically respect their decision even if they may not personally agree with it. In contrast, another approach to the healthcare provider, patient relationship is paternalism. Were autonomy has the patient steering the wheel of decision making, paternalism gives the keys to the healthcare provider. Paternalism has the healthcare providers making all the decisions, sometimes without
It is a philosophical account of justified action. Ethics and human rights are essential in health care. Nurse should make decision followed by ethical principles. Individuals have right to make decision their selves and their beliefs. The ethical dilemma create in Mark’s case is that his life is very critical so he needs blood transfusion treatment. Medical staff try to save Mark’s life and they are preparing units of blood. However, He is Jehovah’s Witness religion so he cannot receive blood transfusion. This situation creates ethical dilemma for the nurse. In the center point of Human rights is, inheriting dignity and equal worth of all human. Person who is the capable to decide, nurse should consider that wish. As per autonomy ethical principle, the nurse should respect the patient’s decision, dignity, values and wishes. The nurse should not harm the patient. Medical treatment Act 1988 Victoria informs that if patient is conscious and adult, he can choose refusal of treatment. If medical staff still continue the procedure, they would have charges for assault or battery law because of harming the patient. Nurse should also follow the code of ethics and code of conduct guideline. The nurses always respect the dignity, culture, values and belief pf patient as well as their