Ethical Dilemmas In Health Care

Good communication with the individual should be enhanced. Both individual and carer must compromise and negotiate to what would benefit most for the individual as long as it is safe. Thorough information should be given and must acknowledge the benefits of their choices. This is a way of recognising rights and choices of the individual. One example is the resident’s choice not to use his/her walking frame. This is one conflict of decision – making. Decision should be tailored to the needs of the resident

One theory that does have a workable approach is that of Beauchamp and Childress’ (1989) ‘Four Principles’. I am going to use this to illustrate how an ethically sound decision could be made for Mary. The first principle; ‘respect for autonomy,’ indicates that patients should have the right to make informed decisions about their care. In Mary’s case, her autonomy has been ignored – she would like to be able to return home to live with her carers and would like unsupervised contact with them, but this has been denied. Having been assessed by the Consultant Psychiatrist, Mary has been deemed to have the capacity to make decisions about where she lives (Mental Capacity Act 2005), though this has not been acknowledged and she is going to be placed in supported accommodation. The second principle; ‘justice,’ relates to an action that is fair and equitable. In Mary’s case, it seems unjust that both she and her carers are seemingly being punished for a claim made during a time when she was unwell. This is particularly important in health care, as practitioners must always be able to justify the care they are giving. In this situation, I think the practitioners would struggle to do this, as the main motivator seems to be based on perceptions, rather than facts. The third principle; ‘beneficence,’ refers to actions that result in a benefit to the

Identify and explain two ethical issues/dilemmas in healthcare as identified and discussed in the scholarly literature (ProQuest, EBSCO,

A patient barrier might include having limited knowledge surrounding life-support systems and treatment options, thereby hindering their ability to fully comprehend or demand certain interventions. Good counseling is therefore essential to overcoming this barrier in implementing the patient’s true and best wishes (Kroning, 2014, p. 222). Another barrier in implementing advance directives concerns the role and influence of family members and the patient. There may be discordance between the desires of the patient and family, which can result in serious debate and tension if not addressed and taken into consideration. Physicians still may have reservations, as certain demands made by the patient may raise ethical concerns in the future, if the provider feels the interventions being done are no longer medically appropriate.

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the Affordable care Act from President Obama gives consumers more options and benefits when seeking coverage from insurance company. It offers lowering cost as well as gets more access to high quality of care. This law creates Patient’s Bill of Rights that is very effective to protect consumers from any abuses or fraud from insurance company. Some preventive services are available to many Americans especially Medicare recipients at no cost. Not just that, they also receive a special offer of 50 percent discount for any well-known drugs in the market place under Medicare named “donut hole.” The Affordable Care Act helps other organizations and programs to convince healthcare providers

Nurses are constantly challenged by changes which occur in their practice environment and are under the influence of internal or external factors. Due to the increased complexity of the health system, nowadays nurses are faced with ethical and legal decisions and often come across dilemmas regarding patient care. From this perspective a good question to be raised would be whether or not nurses have the necessary background, knowledge and skills to make appropriate legal and ethical decisions. Even though most nursing programs cover the ethical and moral issues in health care, it is questionable if new nurses have the depth of knowledge and understanding of these issues and apply them in their practice

Healthcare management usually involves a wide range of activities. It in loves planning, administration, regulations and legislation all aimed at enhancing the quality of the system for the benefit of the patient and the medics. Planning is important as it provides efficient health care to all who are seeking medical intervention. However, planning should not be used as an intimidating tool denying the individual his or healthcare unless such intervention is necessary to the public health interest (Brody 2010). This has been none of the ethical issues surrounding the healthcare system. There has been a debate on what entails patient autonomy and the extent to which the healthcare team should participate in decision

The physician called the community health nurse to persuade the nurse to attempt to change Mrs. M’s mind. Ethical and Legal issues are present in this scenario. The ethical issue is the physician’s unwillingness to allow the patient to make an autonomous decision, although she is perfectly within her rights to do so. Mrs. M’s participation in her recovery suggests that she can make good decisions regarding her personal health and wellbeing. Mrs. M is an older woman but still deserves the same respect and rights as other patients.

In this assignment I will be exploring the issues around communication and assessment in relation to the care given to the patient. I will look at how care was delivered and how successful it was. The NMC (2008) states that healthcare professionals must respect a person’s right to confidentiality; to ensure this I will be using pseudonyms for the service users mentioned in this assignment. I will be referring to the patient as ‘John’ and his wife as ‘Brenda’. I have gained consent from Brenda to talk about her husband’s situation in this assignment, as he did not have capacity to grant consent himself due to dementia.

It is essential to manage risks associated with conflicts or dilemmas between an individual’s rights and duty of care by finding a level of balance. It is important that the care giver put personal feelings aside and look objectively at the situation. The right action should always be taken even if emotionally this is hard to do.

Every seriously ill patient and their family should have decided the following issues: proxy, resuscitation, hospitalization, and specific treatments. Every seriously ill person needs to have pointed out a person to speak on their behalf when they get too sick to do so. A “proxy” can be filled out at any hospital or nursing home granting “power of attorney” to a loved one to be able to make decisions. A person

Another topic discussed between the articles involved, is the importance of surrogate decision makers and advocacy for the substituted judgement standard in situations where the patient does not have the capacity to make his or her own decisions. Both McGowan (2016) and Blacker (2016) agree that the proxy should confirm the incompetent patient’s actual interests and preferences when making a decision on their behalf. In these situations nurses should acknowledge the difficult nature of the situation and help the proxy analyze the patient’s interests from the interests of the proxy and/or

Mrs Ford is vulnerable and will need restorative care. A vulnerable adult is defined as someone over the age of 18 who is not able to look after themselves or protect themselves from harm and might need help from care services (Lord Chancellors Department, 1997). Although DOH et al. (2009) state that there are people who want to change the term vulnerable adult to a person at risk. As stated by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006), Mrs Ford is a vulnerable adult because she is elderly, needs assistance and has a new disability. She is anxious and knowing that the nurses are treating her individually and with compassion will make her feel safer. Although she is vulnerable and at risk there is nothing to indicate that Mrs Ford does not have capacity. Mental capacity is assumed unless proven otherwise and patients should be able to make their own decision even if it is an unwise one (Mental Capacity Act, 2005). Therefore Mrs Ford can make informed decisions and consent to all aspects of her care. With Mrs Ford 's consent, her family can be involved in her care and they may be able to assist with

Healthcare professionals will be faced with ethical dilemmas throughout their career, particularly in the hospital environment. Having an education regarding professional healthcare ethics will provide some direction in how to best address these dilemmas at a time when either the patient or their family is in need of making decisions for themselves or their family member. It can be difficult for healthcare professionals to weigh professional protocol against their own personal beliefs and ethical understandings when determining critical care for their patient.

When a patient is autonomous an individual has the right to make decisions on his own without the consent of outsiders such as nurses, doctors, or other caregivers. Outsiders may attempt to influence the decisions of an autonomous person; it is essential that patients are allowed to make well informed decisions without approval from others. Although autonomy means having freedom of choice, there are limits to those choices. For example, if a patient is requesting anything illegal or unsafe, caregivers do not have to honor his request. Decisions relating to a patient should not be made without the patient’s consent and interests in mind. The only way that a caregiver may deviate from this requirement is if the patient is deemed as incompetent or if there is an emergency situation. However, even if a patient is incompetent this does not mean he is incompetent entirely. Just because a patient is incompetent in one area of decision making, this is not necessarily true for all areas. The competence of a patient may be assessed in terms of high and low risks.