Discuss about the Case Study of Health Care Ethics.
Ethics is a study that states how the human being treats each other and natural environment. It refers to as systematic examination related to attitudes and behaviors of the people (Post & Blustein, 2015). The paper reflects the details related to health ethics based on the case study 1st. The health ethics reflects to as the branch of ethics that deals with the ethical issues that might take place in healthcare, science, and medicine (Hall, Orentlicher, Bobinski, Bagley, & Cohen, 2018). The paper reflects the ethical issues that are raised by events in the case study. It also shows the relation to the notion of human dignity, human rights and the professional codes of ethics/conduct related to the principles of the health care ethics discussed in the unit.
The major ethical issues that are highlighted in the case study are related to the duty of the nurse and doctor in the hospital. When the doctor analysed the symptoms they found that the students are dealing with cholera outbreak. Later, the doctors found that they don’t have enough medical supply due to which they decided to provide medical services to some students. The issue rose when the doctor denied for the treatment of the student. Though, at that point of time, the hospital administrations were supposed to increase medical supply.
Another issue which is emerging out is the discrimination done by Doctors between the students. The hospital offered the services to students who are living in the boarding which is a facility provided by the school to students. The hospital denied for the treatment of those students who are living near to the school but away from home at a residential property near school. Apart from this, doctor sent the student without treatment which reflects the violation of professional codes of ethics/conduct. One of the major ethical issues that arise over here is the humanity. The doctor knows the fact that the student live far away from their home still they denied treatment.
All these ethical issues are linked with the human notions and principle of health care ethics. Firstly, it is a human right; every human has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself (Donnelly & Whelan, 2018). This shows that every citizen has access to all the medical services that are provided by hospital. The hospital denied providing the medical facilities to student. This reveals that it is against the human rights. Apart from this, there is a violation of the human dignity. Dignity is right of every person to be valued and respected (Andorno, 2014). Every people should be treated equally but in the case study, the doctor did discrimination among the students of the same school which reflects that they don’t value and respect every person.
The doctors and nurse denied to the student for the treatment which reflects the violation of their code of conduct. According to the doctor’s code of conduct, a doctor shall help the ill to regain their health. Along with this, a doctor shall base their practice on the rights of fundamental human rights along with the trust and justice in the related to the society and patient (Epstein & Turner, 2015). Over here, in the case study not only the doctor had disrespected the human rights but also denied the help of ill patient. The doctors are obliged to take the decision for the benefit of their patient which reflect their professionalism but in the case study the doctor neither did treatment nor taken any step for the betterment of student. The doctors are supposed to keep the humanity for patients who are suffering from the illness but they were not humanity in the doctors due to which they didn’t provide the medical services to the student (Celie & Prager, 2016).
The case study reflects the ethical issues which are also linked to the principles of the health care. Firstly, the principle of beneficence, this principle reflects that doctor should address the idea that a nurse or doctor action should promote welfare of their patients (World Health Organization, 2016). This principle reflects that doing good is thought of as doing what is best for patients. In other words, the beneficence refers to as an act of charity, mercy, and kindness with a strong connotation of doing well to the patients that are one of the moral obligations (Johnstone, 2015). This is one of the most important fundamentals of ethics in the healthcare. The doctors and nurse have violated this principle as they differentiated the students of a school and denied for the treatment of students who are not in boarding. This was the beneficence step only for students who were living in school boarding, not for other students who were also affected by the cholera outbreak. Therefore, this principle of beneficence was violated by the doctors and created the impact on the life of the student. However, Amos argued that he was residing outside of the school premises but he still remains a student at this school and he is looking for the treatment but his all efforts to seek help were futile.
Another principle which is applicable to the issue determined in the case study is principle of Justice. This principle is one of the complex principles of ethics and it entails fairness, impartiality, and equality. In order words, under this principle of health care, it is the obligation of the doctor to be fair to all the people (Bromley, et.al, 2015). The doctors didn’t follow this principle while making the decisions related to the treatment of the student. They differentiated the student of the same school which reflects those students were not equally treated. There are two types of the justice included in the principle; distributive justice and social justice (Post & Blustein, 2015). Over here, the distributive justice means that all individuals have right to be treated equally irrespective of group, gender, culture, age and other individual characteristics (Hall, et.al, 2018). The social justice includes the application of the equitable rights in all the aspects of the goods and services offered in the society.
The case study reflects the social justice principle is violated by the doctors in terms of medical services. The hospital denied providing the medical services equally to every student which is offered by them in the society (Runciman, Merry & Walton, 2017). This step was taken by the doctors when they find the shortage of medical supplies. Though, this justification given by the hospital was not sufficient as their one decision had ruined the life of the student. When the student didn’t get the treatment from the hospital when he decided to go back home and by the time he arrived home, he was dehydrated and died within hours of his arrival. This reflects that the student was not treated ethically by the hospital and he didn’t receive the justice.
It is recommended to the hospital to manage the medical supplies ever time because the life of a person is totally dependent on the medical supplies of the hospital. At the time, the nurse and doctor found that the medical supply is low they should get contacted with their suppliers to ask for the medical suppliers on urgent basis instead of denying to student for treatment. Moreover, the case study reflects that doctors of hospital were not able to perform the code of conduct properly. The doctors of hospital are obliged to follow the oath which was not followed by them (Fisher, 2016). Therefore, it is suggested to the doctor to follow the code of conduct and oath. Along with this, the doctor should help the patients whenever they find them in trouble because this is part of their code of conduct.
The doctor should make use of their professional standard to determine the need of improvement in the work area and clinical practice. This will help them in meeting the needs of their patients who are in trouble (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen & Korhonen, 2015). Along with this being the citizen of the country, a doctor should respect all the fundamental human rights. The doctor should never deny the treatment of any person because this might affect the entire life of that person and their family.
In the end, it can be concluded that the hospital and their staff were faulty in this case. In the case study, there are many ethical issues faced by the student of school. All these ethical issues are discussed along with the principles of ethics applied in the healthcare. In the current scenario, it is essential to implement the principles of ethics in the healthcare sector because many people are becoming the victims of ethical issues. Moreover, the analysis also reflects that doctors are not performing their duty and regulations. There should be strict guidelines to ensure that the doctors are performing their code of conduct or not.
References
Andorno, R. (2014). Human dignity and human rights. In Handbook of Global Bioethics. Netherlands: Springer.
Bromley, E., Mikesell, L., Jones, F., & Khodyakov, D. (2015). From subject to participant: Ethics and the evolving role of community in health research. American journal of public health, 105(5), 900-908.
Celie, K. B., & Prager, K. (2016). Health care ethics consultation in the United States. AMA Journal of Ethics, 18(5), 475.
Donnelly, J., & Whelan, D. (2018). International human rights. New York: Routledge.
Epstein, B., & Turner, M. (2015). The nursing code of ethics: Its value, its history. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2).
Fisher, C. B. (2016). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. California: Sage Publications.
Hall, M. A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M. A., Bagley, N., & Cohen, I. G. (2018). Health care law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Johnstone, M. J. (2015). Bioethics: a nursing perspective. China: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(8), 1744-1757.
Post, L. F., & Blustein, J. (2015). Handbook for health care ethics committees. US: JHU Press.
Post, L. F., & Blustein, J. (2015). Handbook for health care ethics committees. JHU Press.
Runciman, B., Merry, A., & Walton, M. (2017). Safety and ethics in healthcare: a guide to getting it right. US: CRC Press.
World Health Organization. (2016). Guidance for managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks. World Health Organization.
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