The Importance Of Ethical Decision Making In Healthcare

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service users, thereby improving healthcare outcome (Chaloner, 2007). Their main concern is to guide the activities of healthcare providers by utilization of the professional code of conduct so that professionalism in practice will be maintained, informed decision making and ensuring patient’s safety (DH, 2012; NMC, 2008). These also contributes to improvement in the quality of life by reducing morbidity and mortality rate, thus, promoting consistency of care (Hansson, 2009; Corey et al., 2014).
According to Corey et al. (2014) it was stated that when making a decision, healthcare professionals should always consider the potential consequences that could result from the available options given, putting into consideration the legal and ethical result of the decision that is being made. This corresponds with the British Medical Association which states that “medical ethics is seen as implementing ethical reasoning to medical decision making” (NHS, 2010a). There are dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals in the clinical setting during decision making (Hardy and Smith, 2008) hence, in decision making, the professional code of …show more content…

Autonomy in the healthcare system can be defined as allowing patients make their decisions by choosing their preferred healthcare treatment plan, and making a decision on what they want without intrusion from the healthcare providers (Entwistle, 2010). This is considered as the act of an individual making un-coerced decisions (Griffith and Tengnah, 2008). In addition, in the current healthcare agenda, informed consent was included, which serves as a paradigm shift from the paternalism approach to respecting and valuing patient’s autonomy (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2014; Alzhemier Europe,

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