Ethical Issues in Health Care: A Case Study Analysis

Running head: HEALTH CARE ETHICS
HEALTH CARE ETHICS
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1HEALTH CARE ETHICS
Introduction
Each and every day, the patients, families and the health care professionals are faced with
different kinds of ethical or the legal issues. These difficult dilemmas might relate to medical
treatments, hospital managements, practices and other matters that might arise in the health care
industry (Griffith & Tengnah, 2017). Ethical issues in health care might require an immediate
response, like making the decisions for the patients. Due to the complexities of the health care,
the likelihood of the near misses and malpractices are also high. This paper will discuss about the
different ethical issues that can be seen in the case of Andrew , who was presented in the
emergency department of a public hospital and died out of pulmonary tuberculosis. There were
several questions surrounding the death of Andrews that led to legal proceedings. The ethical
issues raised in this case will be discussed in the light of the nursing codes of conduct and the
professional standards followed by a set of recommendations.
Critical analysis of the ethical issues
The first ethical issues revealed in this case is that Bill, the Triage nurses assumed
Andrew to be suffering from bronchitis without any proper assessment. A contagious disease like
pulmonary disease should have been taken care off more seriously. Another issue was that
although Andrew was having high fever, producing sputum and experiencing shortness of breath,
yet he was made to wait for 6 hours in the waiting room, while the health care staffs attended the
other patients that deemed more serious to them .Hence a negligence of care and breaching of the
duty of care can be seen in this case .Medical error and malpractices can bring about deaths and
injuries to the patient (Griffith & Tengnah, 2017). In a study of the Australian health care, it has

2HEALTH CARE ETHICS
been found that medical negligence had occurred in 12.2% of the admissions, 51 % deaths have
been found to be avoidable (Griffith & Tengnah, 2017). Medical negligence occurs when the
medical practitioner fails provide care that is expected resulting in injury or death of the patient.
It can be any breach of conduct of the health care professionals (Brenner, Brenner, Awerbuch &
Horwitz, 2012). In medical negligence cases it is the duty of the patient to establish that it is the
duty that the concerned nurse or the health care staffs of the hospital owed to the patient. This
can directly bring the concerned health care professionals under the Tort of negligence, where
the claimant (Andrews’s parents) would be able to show a duty of care imposed by the law
(Griffith & Tengnah, 2017).
A nurse is liable to use the ethical frameworks while making the decisions. It can be seen
that Andrew waited in the patient for long 6 hours in the waiting room without care, which is at
the same time both in human and shameful for the nursing profession. A proper RN should be
able to consider and response in a timely manner to the health and wellbeing of the patient. As
per the nursing codes of ethics, an RN should abide by the key ethical principles. Patient should
be shown beneficence by having compassion and taking positive actions to help the others.
Another ethical that can be rightfully placed in the context is the non-maleficence, which enables
the nurses to remain competent in their professions and report any kind of malpractices (Grace,&
DRN, 2017). Patients should be kept first for which nurses might have to push their limits.
According to the Safe patient care Act, a health care organization should have a proper doctor
patient ratio. Lack of staffs and too much patients are likely to cause any kind of medical errors
just as in this case (Ivanov & Oden, 2013).
One of the risk factor for this condition is that during waiting in the waiting room the
bacteria can also get transmitted to other patients waiting in the same waiting room and hence