Healthcare Ethics and Morals Essay
Healthcare Ethics and Morals Essay
Healthcare Ethics and Morals Essay
Consider the scenarios given below and answer the questions listed after each scenario. Justify your answers with appropriate research and reasoning.
Scenario 1
The rising number of uninsured patients has led to an increased reliance on the hospital emergency room for routine nonemergency care. EMTALA ensures patients’ access to the emergency room of any hospital, regardless of patients’ insurance status or their ability to pay. Using the South University Online library or the Internet, read about EMTALA. You can search for this act by using the keyword, “EMTALA” and respond to the following question:
- How do the law and the medical profession’s code of ethics impact those individuals who seek care from emergency departments for reasons other than those that are truly emergencies?
Scenario 2
Autonomy is one of the most important ethical principles discussed in long-term care. Often, autonomy is in danger of being sacrificed when a patient is in need of a higher level of care. Imagine you are part of the staff at the local nursing home. The administrator has asked you and a group of other employees to discuss the principle of autonomy and how it can be applied to the nursing home setting. As a staff member, answer the following questions:
- How would you decide the best way to honor a patient’s autonomy in a nursing home and what will you decide?
- How would you handle differences of opinion in the group as you try to come to a consensus on the best way to preserve autonomy?
Ethical values are essential for all healthcare workers. Ethical practice is a foundation for nurses, who deal with ethical issues daily. Ethical dilemmas arise as nurses care for patients. These dilemmas may, at times, conflict with the Code of Ethics or with the nurse’s ethical values. Nurses are advocates for patients and must find a balance while delivering patient care. There are four main principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence.
Each patient has the right to make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and values.[4]. This is known as autonomy. A
patient’s need for autonomy may conflict with care guidelines or suggestions that nurses or other healthcare workers believe is best. A person has a right to refuse medications, treatment, surgery, or other medical interventions regardless of what benefit may come from it. If a patient chooses not to receive a treatment that could potentially provide a benefit, the nurse must respect that choice.
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Healthcare workers have a duty to refrain from maltreatment, minimize harm, and promote good towards patients.[4] This duty of particular treatment describing beneficence. Healthcare workers demonstrate this by providing a balance of benefits against risks to the patient. Assisting patients with tasks that they are unable to perform on their own, keeping side rails up for fall precautions, or providing medications in a quick and timely manner are all examples of beneficence.
All patients have a right to be treated fair and equally by others. Justice involves how people are treated when their interest competes with others.[5]. A current hot topic that addresses this is the lack of healthcare insurance for some. Another example is with patients in rural settings who may not have access to the same healthcare services that are offered in metropolitan areas.
Patients have a right to no harm. Non-maleficence requires that nurses avoid causing harm to patients.[6] This principle is likely the most difficult to uphold. Where life support is stopped or patients have chosen to stop taking medication that can save their lives, the nurse is put in a morally challenging position.
Nurses should know the Code of Ethics within their profession and be aware and recognize their own integrity and moral character. Nurses should have a basic and clear understanding of key ethical principles. The nursing profession must remain true to patient care while advocating for patient rights to self-identify needs and cultural norms. Ethical considerations in nursing, though challenging, represent a true integration of the art of patient care.
Nurses have a responsibility to themselves, their profession, and their patients to maintain the highest ethical principals. Many organizations have ethics boards in place to review ethical concerns. Nurses at all levels of practice should be involved in ethics review in their targeted specialty area. It is important to advocate for patient care, patient rights, and ethical consideration of practice. Ethics inclusion should begin in nursing school and continue as long as the nurse is practicing.
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