Ethical Dilemmas In An Ultrasound Department Of A Hospital

999 Words4 Pages

Question 1 Ethics are defined to be socially accepted guidelines that are centred on moral values according to one’s cultural beliefs. If a person is known to practise unethical values, no punishments or penalties are metered out because technically, they are not breaking any laws. However, they may be viewed by society as carrying out immoral actions and society may eventually shunned them. Law, on the other hand, are a set of rules and regulations that society has to adhere to that are documented in black and white. If a person is convicted of breaking a law, the person would be charged in court and may face consequences, depending on the actions done. The prescribed action done is considered an offence and a penalty may be incurred. An action …show more content…

At the end of each month, each sonographer is given an excel spread sheet of the breakdown of the number of cases done and the TAT respectively. Should a sonographer exceed the TAT, counselling is given by the superior. The primary interest here is to help patients by taking good ultrasound images that may help in the diagnosis of patients. The secondary interest is due to the TAT breakdown, the sonographer may be performing the ultrasound examination as quickly as possible, taking the required images as per protocol. This may result in missing out significant or subtle pathologies as the sonographeros focused on finishing the scan within 20 minutes. Furthermore, the faster one does a scan, the better it looks on the end of the month performance report sheet. (149 words) Question 3 a) A consequentialist approach is where one focuses on the end consequences of a situation. To achieve the best possible outcome, the actions done are morally and ethically viewed right. In other words, regardless of the action done, the end result will bring about a positive outcome. (47 …show more content…

As the senior sonographer has not even assessed the patient personally but knows the current condition, she has a duty to still perform the required scan. She acts in the best interest by delegating the work to another sonographer and informing her to still try to perform the scan, but ultimately, inform the parents that it is near impossible to do the scan and sedation is required. Irrespective of what the senior sonographer feels at the time, her objective is to get the task done knowing the current understaffed