Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Ethical Situation in Healthcare

Ethical Situation in Healthc beAzmir Bin Abdul LatiffENQUIRY 3Discuss the placement described from the perspective of the health and human services professional.What would be the most appropriate response to the situation?Include in your resolution theethical frameworks, theories and principles appropriate to responding to the scenariorelevant professional codes of ethics and codes of exertrelevant legislation and guidelines, statute and common law, government guidelines.cultural and community values related to the issue, andcomment on what would be appropriate and inappropriate responses of the health professional to the situation.Case Study ThreeDr Simons was the new Surgical Consultant at a large public hospital. He was trained in the USA, and came with a reputation for being very fierce. Dr Simons regularly yelled at other staff, in feature Nurses, if his requests were not immediately met. He justified that if Chefs could yell at staff in a kitchen, where nobodys life is a t s con, he could yell at incompetence when it is a life and death situation. Although the Nursing staff disliked Dr Simons, they continued to work with him as they felt intimidated.One nurse, Clare, worked in Recovery where she looked after patients directly after they had surgery. She noticed that a very large proportion of Dr Simons patients were in considerable pain after surgery, and several patients had adverse outcomes such as heavy bleeding from the surgical site. Clare was concerned around this, but was s heraldic bearingd to report it for fear of reprisal from Dr Simons.Eventually she was so worried about the patients health she made an official complaint to the Hospital steering. She was called in to the Director of Nursing and told that if she ever made trouble like that again, a reason would be found to not continue her employment. She was told that Dr Simons was a senior staff member, and she had no right to make complaints about his medical conduct as she was only a Nurse.What should Clares response be?As healthcare professionals, Nurse Clare and Doctor Simons are bound by or influenced by professional codes of practice and ethics, Hippocraticoaths, statutes and laws and government guidelines. Clare was being responsible and professional by reporting and making an official complaint to the hospital management as she was concerned for the health and sound being of her patients. It is her responsibility to report any suspicions of malpractice or substandard care to the higher authority if the senior staff members do not investigate and take actions to mitigate the suspicions.Considering that most of Doctor Simons patients were in a lot of pain and were exhibiting signs of heavy bleeding at the surgical site, Clare did raised her concerns to the hospital management and may have had exposed him to medical malpractice in the process. Instead of investigating the issue, the hospital management threatened to discontinue her employment. The fact tha t Doctor Simon is protected by the senior staff members despite his incompetence and medical malpractice is disturbing. Health professionals have codes of practice and guidelines to abide by. The National law requires Clare to report to a government body, AHPRA , if registered health practitioner knows of another practitioners destructive actions. AHPRA is a government body that focuses on serious cases of substandard practice or conduct by practitioners, or serious cases of impairment. This is to safeguard patients and to reduce or prevent the take chances of potential harm from a result of medical malpractice, negligence or impairment. A mandatory notification requirement helps to prevent the public from being placed at risk of harm. This shows that Clare have the right to report Doctor Simons stead and actions to AHPRA if the senior staff members do not take action against Doctor Simon after the reported incidents as Doctor Simon have behaved in a way of life that poses a seri ous risk to the public.Ethics refers to standards of behaviors which are the best possible act in the many situations and issues that are raised as concerns. Ethics are not based on science, law, religion, recognized social norm, or feelings. It is viewed as approaches or processes such as, the utilitarian approach, an approach that is the one that provides the most good or does the least harm. The Utilitarian Approach deals with penalty it tries both to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done. The Rights Approach is the one that best protects and respects the deterrent example rights of those affected. This approach starts from the belief that humans have a dignity based on their human nature and their ability to choose freely what they do with their lives. TheJustice Approach, the predilection that all people should be treated equally and fairly. Each of the approaches helps us determine what standards of behavior can be considered ethical. As there are muted proble ms with the mentioned approaches, not all healthcare professionals agree to the specific approaches or the same fall of human and civil rights. An ethical framework based on the approaches is to get-go recognize the ethical issue. After that, the healthcare professional must gather all the facts pertaining to the issue. He/she then must learn more about the situation and lay down the options available before acting on it. Subsequently, the next step would be to evaluate alternative approaches like the Utilitarian approach, Rights approach or Justice approach that best fits the situation. After considering the suitable approach needed to tackle the situation, he/she must act on the decided options. The end result must be reflected and evaluated if need be for further improvements.As a healthcare professional, Doctor Simon is to abide by the Ethics that is in the best touch on of his patients. This means that he must provide the best healthcare and at the same time, reduce the amou nt of harm done on his patients. In Clares perspective, she viewed Doctor Simons actions as most harmful to the patients as he had caused a lot of pain and bleeding to his patients surgical site. As he did not abide by the Ethics in Clares viewpoint, she has the right to report him to the higher authority to protect the patients.The practice of Doctor Simon who caused pain and heavy bleedings to his patients was evaluate by his peers may be due to the Bolam test where traditionally, doctors were not said to have breached their duty of care if they acted in accordance with a practice accepted by their peers Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee (1957). As their peers were the ones who set the standard, substandard care and malpractice were more prominent during those times as long as the practice conducted is accepted by the rest. However, this soon changed because of an incident whereby a patient was left almost blind when the doctor had failed in informing her on the risk o f sympathetic ophthalmia. In this case, there were two opposing sides in which one would inform the patient and another would not inform. Due to this, the law was changed and the standard was set not by peers but by the court instead.Based on the Professional code of Ethics and Conduct, Ethical Frameworks, Theories and Principles, and Law and Guidelines, Clare should report to AHPRA if the higher governance did not take any actions against Doctor Simon. By reporting to AHPRA also on the culture of the higher authority in her hospital, Clare would be able to tick the inappropriate culture that is similar to Bolam test. By doing so, Clare would be able to help stop the substandard practices and minimize the potential harm on the patients while increase the healthcare system to its optimum capabilities. This way, the patients would be able to receive better care with a methodological and ethical approach.ReferencesDhai, A. (2008). Understanding professionalism in health care in the twenty first century.SADJ, 63, 174, 176-7Faunce, T., Shat, K., Adams, C. (2008). Health the law. Hot topics (Sydney, N.S.W.) no. 64.Retrieved on 30/5/2014 from http//www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Codes-Guidelines/Guidelines-for-mandatory-notifications.aspxM.Velasquez, D. Moberg, M. J. Meyer, T. Shanks, M. R. McLean, D. DeCosse, Claire Andre and Kirk O. Hanson. A Framework for Thinking Ethically (May 2009) retrieved from http//www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/ finality/framework.html

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