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Ethical issues in health care
Ethical concepts in healthcare
Ethical issues in health care
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Ethical issues in health care
Ethical concepts in healthcare
Ethical issues in health care
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
and Michael Q., I strongly believe that Nurse L. was not acting immorally or unprofessionally. I agree with Immanuel Kant’s summarization, “All lies, including those told out of altruistic motives, are wrong.” Michael’s oncologist withheld crucial medical information and alternative treatment options. Had Michael not known about at all his options, his circumstances could have turned out extremely different. Unless Michael had the inability to make his own rational decisions or there was no one to assist him in making the decisions for him where he could not, there were no reasons for the oncologist to withhold information and make the final decision that treatment was the best option for
Sofia’s Case Study”), withholding seemingly necessary and vital information from a patient is in fact ethical. However, this might be one of the rarer cases in medical ethics. The
In this case study the primary nurse, Amelia Wilkerson, is caring for a patient, Katy Palmer who has recently been admitted to the hospital for fatigue and abnormal lab counts. The patient asks Amelia for information regarding her diagnosis. Amelia has seen Katy’s results and knows that she has been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The ethical dilemma seen in this situation is that it is outside of the scope of practice for Amelia to discuss Katy’s original diagnosis with her.
Bridgett Beuckens How sad it is that nursing leaders allow, much less participate in such acts. The stress and responsibilities this author was subjected to are not fair nor safe. The ANA Code of Ethics addresses occurrences as in this scenario. Provision 4.1 states nurses are responsible and accountable for the nursing care
The Victoria Government Department of Human Services (2012) stated “the freedom to make decisions which affect our lives is a fundamental right that each of us should enjoy”. The decisions we make in our lives represent who we are and how we want to be perceived by the world – whilst taking into consideration our own morals, beliefs and goals. Supported decision-making (SDM) is a process by which “a third-party assists or helps and individual with an intellectual or cognitive disability to make a legally enforceable decision for oneself” (Kohn & Blumenthal, 2013). May & Rea (2014) stated that “supported decision-making assumes that all people, regardless of their ability or disability, have some capacity to be involved in decision making”.
Veracity is grounded concerning persons and concepts of autonomy. Truth-telling allows a person to make full rational choices (Weiss & Tappen, 2015, p. 51). The nurse’s function telling the truth may not be complicated, but deciding how much truth to say may be very challenging. For example, the act of giving placebo medication is an example of when telling the truth does more significant harm than good.
This dilemma also exemplifies how one complex dilemma in patient care, can impact on legal, ethical and professional issues for nurses. These issues interface with each other in substantial ways. Nurses must be prepared for these inevitable challenging situations (Tang, 2011). The author must consider the legal, regulatory, ethical,
Military Nurse’s Dilemma Chi Tiet University of Michigan - Flint Nurses are a group of professionals who faces a variety of ethical dilemmas while working. Therefore, these dilemmas cannot only impact on their personalities but also affect their patients. However, ethical dilemmas are argumentative and difficult to deal with, so there is no “right” or “wrong” answer for them. In a military nurse’s dilemma, a military RN is ordered to force feeding a terrorist prisoner while he is undergoing interrogation, and the prisoner is on a hunger strike protesting. The nurse is torn, but fearing of reprisal if orders are disobeyed, so the nurse is appalled at the over-riding a patient’s wish by force feeding him agains his wish.
There were specific situations that led to the cause of Julie Thao's actions of medication error and the death of Jasmine. The situation could have completely been avoided had Julie followed the code of ethics and avoided shorts to provide proper care for the patient. The state claimed that Thao's mistake was caused by actions, omissions and unapproved shortcuts, however, there were other factors that played a role in her carelessness as well. While failure to comply with procedure has been a factor in the medication administration error, other factors contributed as well. For example, failure to properly use the information system, or to ignore alerts or warnings have also resulted in preventable errors (Nelson, Evan, & Gardener, 2005).
If we as nurses respect the confidentiality of a patient, we should do so for all the patients. However, Griffith (2007) argues that the duty of confidence should not be absolute and nurses should always consider sharing information if required. Though the principle of respecting patient autonomy and their right to confidentiality is broken here, the principle of beneficence and non-maleficence is uphold. Nurses have an obligation to protect patient’s confidentiality but the duty to warn an innocent party of imminent harm is far more critical. Therefore, breaking confidentiality here is potentially doing more good than
Medication use is potentially dangerous. Polypharmacy is increasing, and makes it harder to keep track of side effects and interactions and of potentially inappropriate drug combinations. “The risk of serious consequences, hospitalization, and death due to medication errors increases with patients’ age and number of medications (Scand J Prim Health Care, 2012)”. For example, the GP is supposed to monitor the patient's regular medication, but does not always do so. Lack of monitoring and keeping track of patients’ medication use is a main cause when a patient is given inappropriate drugs.
Truth telling and confidentiality depend upon the situations. It is right to tell the truth in certain but it is also right to hide something from the patients in certain situations. According to utilitarianism one should usually tell the truth and keep one’s promise because you should always perform an action that provides maximum utility and if keeping a promise and telling the truth makes someone happy then it is providing maximum utility.
Ethical Issues in Healthcare There are many ethical issues facing health care at any time and it is impossible to say definitively which is the most pressing or the most important. Health care professionals are expected to base their practice on a set of ethical principles, including truthfulness, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and confidentiality. Ethical issues can arise, however, when a l professional is called upon to act in opposition to personal values or in cases where the values of patient, health care worker, and sponsoring institution conflict. The following issues are presented in no order. Neonatal Ethics Neonates are babies within their first twenty-eight days of life.
This assignment is a reflection of ethical dilemmas in nursing practice as a registered nurse; this paper is based on the group assignment which was completed for NURS3004. This reflection will include an explanation of the role that I portrayed in the group, the preparation that I did for the role, what could have been done differently, how this group assignment has impacted me in terms of working in a team and finally explain how this assignment will assist me in my future clinical practice as a newly registered nurse. The role that I played in the group was a patient who has a mental health disorder and I didn’t want his mother to know about the illness, as a front it seemed as though we had a close relationship. When my mother leaves the room I asked the nurse to keep my illness confidential as she does not really understand it.
The practice of health care includes many scenarios that have to do with making adequate decisions when it comes to a patient’s life, and the way they are treated. Having an ethical code in all health care organizations is very important, because it helps health care workers with reaching a suited and ethical decision when it comes to the patient. In health care, patient will always be put first, and their autonomy will always be respected. Nevertheless, when there is a situation where a patient might be in harm, or might be making their condition worse because of the decisions they made. Health care workers will always be there to