Identify the ethical issues that are raised by the events described in the chosen case study.
Ethics is the moral principle that guides a person’s behavior or conducting an activity. Ethics is essential to be maintained by each and every company at their workplace (Post & Blustein, 2015). It might sometimes vary with the change in the business type. The paper is based on the case study 1st that reflect the healthcare ethical issues. Healthcare ethics is a set of moral principles, value, and beliefs that assist while making the choice related to the medical care. Moreover, the paper reflects the analyses of ethical issues that are related to the notions of human dignity, human rights, professional codes of ethics/conduct, and the major principles of health care ethics.
In the case study, there are some of the ethical issues that are raised by the event. The issues arose when students of school started facing the problem of Cholera outbreak which was recognized by the hospital after analyzing their symptoms like abdominal pain, profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, thirst, muscle cramps and many others.
Firstly, the major ethical issue was in allocating limited medications. The hospital administration was unable to maintain adequate medical supply due to which they were not capable to provide treatment to all the students. This reflects that there were limited medications due to which they were not able to meet the need of treatment of students.
Secondly, Balancing care quality and efficiency was another issue faced by the student because of the doctor as they denied for the treatment of student due to a shortage of medical supplies which is against the oath of doctors (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). This reflects that hospital is not able to maintain care quality and efficiency.
Thirdly, the doctors discriminated students of one school as they decided to provide the treatment to the students who were boarders at the school and not to the other student. Amos was one of the patients who suffered from cholera outbreak but he was not at boarding of school. Though, he was living away from home at a residential property which was near to his school in Malawi.
Lastly, another ethical issue which is highlighted in the case study is access to care. Every citizen in the country has access to the care which is offered by the hospital (Larson, 2013). In the case study, the medical services are only provided to the few of the students which reflect limited access to care to the general public.
These issues are linked with the human notions as well as with the principles of health care ethics. This is right of the human being to get highest attainable standard of physical and mental health which includes access to all the medical services, adequate food, sanitation, decent housing and healthy working conditions (Andorno, 2014). In this case, there is a violation of the human rights to health and this has been done by the hospital as they denied offering the medical services to an ill patient.
Moreover, the doctors in the hospital were not able to respect the human dignity. Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake and to be treated ethically (Lupton, 2015). Over here, Amos was neither ethically treated by the doctors nor got respect. The violation of the notion is very clear in this case as the doctor pretended in the case that the students who are not borders are not important. They discriminated between the students of the same school which was not ethical and shows that human dignity notion was not respected by them. Moreover, this incident reflects that doctor does not keep the humanity because of that only they didn’t conduct the treatment of the student.
Apart from these notions, some of the principles of health care ethics also relate to the case study. The principle of beneficence is applicable in this case study. According to this principle, the doctor should always help the patient in advance for his/her own good (Holloway & Galvin, 2016). The major focus of this principle is on the betterment of the patient. Considering the case study, the doctor has denied helping the patient when he was ill. This show that they did follow the principle of beneficence because the hospital didn’t take a step for the betterment of the patients but they took a step when they found the default in their system.
The principle of justice in the health care ethics is also violated by the hospital in Malawi. This principle reflects that doctor and hospital administration needs to be fair and treat like cases alike (Hall, Orentlicher, Bobinski, Bagley & Cohen, 2018). Though, in this case, study, the doctors discriminated between the students of the same school due to which they were not able to do justice with the students. The doctors decided to provide the treatment only to those students who are living in boarding.
Health ethics principles include the principle of Nonmaleficence which is violated by doctors. The harm over here is not only physical harm but it also includes the mental harm to the patients (Solum, Maluwa & Severinsson, 2012). When Amos got to know that doctors are not able to conduct his treatment then he got mentally disturbed which ultimately created an impact on his health. Moreover, the student has spent a lot of time to convince the doctors for the treatment due to which when he returned back to the home he was so dehydrated that he died because of illness.
Apart from this, there is numerous code of conduct that is must for the doctors to follow. Practice standards like fees, conflicts of interest, and contractual relationship are covered under the different sections of the code. This is the professional code of conduct in which doctor should keep the welfare of their patients before their own personal and financial interest (Scottsdale, 2018). Though, this conduct was not followed by the doctors in this case as they clearly denied to the student for the treatment which was not for the welfare of a student.
Moreover, there are some of the principles of the code of conduct for the doctors which are not followed by the doctors in this case study. The physicians to practice treat the patients with respect, dignity, and rights (NAHQ, 2018). This principle of code is violated by the doctor as they didn’t treat their patients with respect, dignity, and rights. Along with this, the professional code of conduct of doctors says that doctors should give priority while treating patients on the basis of needs of the medical services but in this case study the doctors clearly denied for the treatment irrespective of understanding the need of treatment to the patients on an emergency basis (Decker, 2018). All these notions and professional conduct are linked with the case study event that reflects the ethical issues faced by the company.
Considering the case study and the analysis of ethical issues it is recommended to the hospital to manage enough medical supply so that the doctors can’t deny to any patient for the treatment. Moreover, the school administration should get involved in between and should force the hospital to bring the medicines for every student of their school. Along with this, they should get oppose to the doctors when they discriminated the students on the basis of school boardings. It is recommended to the doctors to respect the fundamental rights of the human and should always respect the human dignity. Moreover, the doctors should never deny to the patients for the treatment as this might ruin the life of any patient and their family members.
Apart from this, the professional codes of conduct are formed so that the doctors can follow these professional conducts and should treat their patients on the priority basis. This is the reason doctor who do professional practice take oath so that they remember the code of conduct that they have to follow. Moreover, the doctors are obliged to follow the oath and the principles of health care ethics.
In the end, it can be concluded from the paper that in the whole incident Amos, the student suffered a lot because of unethical behavior of the hospital administration and their staff members. Along with this, the doctors are obliged to follow the professional code of conduct and principles of ethics because this is the only way through which they can treat every person equal. Though, in this case study, the doctors were not able to perform their code of conduct properly due to which the student suffered and now he is not alive. Considering the scenario every patient should raise their voice when they find doctors are not performing their duties and responsibility ethically. Moreover, the healthcare associations should ensure that doctors are following the ethical code of conduct effectively or not
References
Andorno, R. (2014). Human dignity and human rights. In Handbook of Global Bioethics. Netherlands: Springer.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Decker, F. (2018). Physician’s Code of Ethics. Retrieved from: https://work.chron.com/physicians-code-ethics-5387.html
Hall, M. A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M. A., Bagley, N., & Cohen, I. G. (2018). Health care law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2016). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, J. (2013). Five Top Ethical Issues in Healthcare. Retrieved from: https://www.amnhealthcare.com/latest-healthcare-news/five-top-ethical-issues-healthcare/
Lupton, D. (2015). The pedagogy of disgust: the ethical, moral and political implications of using disgust in public health campaigns. Critical public health, 25(1), 4-14.
NAHQ. (2018). NAHQ Code of Ethics and and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from: https://nahq.org/about/code-of-ethics
Post, L. F., & Blustein, J. (2015). Handbook for health care ethics committees. US: JHU Press.
Scottsdale, B. (2018). Doctor’s Ethical Code of Conduct. Retrieved from: https://work.chron.com/doctors-ethical-code-conduct-11437.html
Solum, E. M., Maluwa, V. M., & Severinsson, E. (2012). Ethical problems in practice as experienced by Malawian student nurses. Nursing ethics, 19(1), 128-13
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