Health Care Ethics - Assignment PDF

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Added on 2021-06-16

Health Care Ethics - Assignment PDF

Added on 2021-06-16

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Running head: health care ethics 1Health Care EthicsStudent’s nameInstitutional affiliation

Health care ethics 2Case study summaryThe question presents a brief case study about a student called Amos who is a victim of cholera break out in his school. There are few medical supplies in the health unit to handle the situation and Amos among other students is denied treatment on the basis that he doesn’t reside in the school. Amos goes home and dies due dehydration a few hours after arrival. Introduction While patients have a right to refuse treatment either due to cultural, religious or personalpreferences, it is the duty of health care professionals to accord medical treatment to all people without fear, favor or discrimination argues Weir, (2016). If health care providers refuse to provide the necessary care for unjustifiable reasons, this is termed as professional negligence. According to professional code of ethics, doctors are charged with a responsibility of according care to the people they have been entrusted with and in cases where it is not possible, morality expects that they can give recommendations on a better course of action to be taken by the patient. This paper focuses on the ethical code of conduct, professional values, notions of human dignity and professional policies regarding refusal of treatment and the recommendations for professional practice in line with the presented case study. From the case, there are several ethical issues that can be identified as ethical issues. These include professional negligence (also known as refusal of care), disinterested neglectfulness and unprofessional conduct. In regard to the code of professional conduct for nurses and doctors in Australia, nurses are expected to behave in a professional manner while at their place or work and even when away (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, (2015). The professional code of conduct highlights several obligations that nurses are expected to uphold

Health care ethics 3and maintain. It also highlights minimum standards of care and behavior that is expected from a health care provider. The professional code of conduct requires of nurses to justify their actions, decisions and treatment using the existing legal frameworks of practice. The professional code ofconduct therefore ensures efficacy and competency for all health care providers. The professional code of ethics of nurses observes that nurses are to comply with a society’s culture, values and beliefs. They are also charged with observing diversity of the various people who attend the health facility. In addition, nurses are also obliged to support the well-being of the patients by providing a patient centered approach to health care. It is also the professional role of nurses to build trust with the society and maintain confidence in the society by providing care. The professional code does not give detailed explanation to nurses in every situation but it provides guidelines for improving competency in the practice of nurses (O'Brien, 2015).Unprofessional conduct refers to a conduct that is inconsistent with the expected standards within which nurses are expected to perform. This may include failure to ensure accountability and responsibility with the people they ought to provide quality and competent health care. The case of Amos provides a perfect example of an unprofessional conduct where the nurses refused to accord treatment to Amos irrespective of the fact that they had an obligationto provide quality and competent care to him. It is also unprofessional conduct in the sense that the nurse and the doctor failed to make a competent decision in order to accommodate Amos andthe other students whom they couldn’t accord treatment (Wakerman, et al (2017).Unethical behavior is also another issue that can be identified in the case study. Ethics according to Grace, et al (2017) refer to the well agreed upon societal values and customs. Ethicsreflect the belief system of a certain society, the culture and morals. Ethics can be used to

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