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Case studies in public health ethics

   

Added on  2021-05-31

8 Pages2042 Words58 Views
Running head: HEALTH ETHICS: CASE STUDY 41Health Ethics: Case Study 4Student’s NameUniversity

HEALTH ETHICS: CASE STUDY 42Health Ethics: Case Study 4The role of ethical practice in healthcare is to provide good patient care and reduce harm. Ethics guide the approaches and decisions that practitioners make when faced with difficult issues. However, as individuals nurses re faced with difficult situations that they have to make regardless of the ethical issues that exist thus creating condition that can be questioned on which healthcare issues that they issues to decide the action to take in a particular situation[ CITATION Mor111 \l 1033 ]. This essay analyses the ethical issues that revolve around the end-of-life care in case study four the case of Archie Simpson born with encephalomyopathy mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS) where the doctors and hospital administration felt the need for withdrawal of medication since it was not assisting the patient to recover. The ethical issues raised by the events described in the chosen case study The ethical principle of end-of-life care addresses the issues that healthcare professional are faced with during the end of life care of patients. Sometimes patients reach point in life where they can no longer respond to medication and the only thing that is left is waiting for them to die. Decision making around the issues of end of life care revolve around the need to prolong life with support of medicine or let the natural death process to take placeby foregoing the treatment or life support (Chatterjee & Srinivasan, 2013). In the case of Archie Simpson the practitioners are faced with the ethical issues of withholding medication and allowing natural death.Withholding of medication is an ethical dilemma that most practitioners struggle with.The interventions being administered on an individual vary from minor to complex life-sustaining strategies for the patient. The rationale adopted by the practitioner needs to be based on the burden that outweighs the benefits that the patient receives. In the case of Archie

HEALTH ETHICS: CASE STUDY 43Simpson she has been on the medication for some time but the condition is not changing which makes the treatment a burden rather than a benefit. According to Karnik & Kanekar (2016) life prolonging therapies can sometimes increase suffering and decrease the quality of life of the patient. In the case study, it is indicated that the patient’s condition was becoming worse, an indicator that shows the inability of the medication to restore quality of life for the patient. Another ethical dilemma that practitioners face is allowing natural death where the practitioner should not make any attempts to assist the patient thus leaving them to die naturally. This process focusses on allowing the patient to remain comfortable in the last moments before death but not interfering with the natural dying process. In the case of Simpson, the practitioner has to put strategies in place for making the patient comfortable but refrain from anything that interferes with the natural death process[ CITATION Bha13 \l 1033 ]. The range of actions that apply towards this condition vary from patient to patient and depend on the state of the patient. In the case study, the doctors have suggested the application of this process since the patient is seen as not responding to any medication. Ethically the decision is to be discussed with the family members to psychologically prepare them on the approaches that will be taken. For example, in the case study, the parents are insisting of sustaining life with the hope that the research will come true yet they do not have the exact details of the study. The ethical issues about the notions of human dignity, human rights, professional codes of ethics/conduct, relevant professional policies/legislation, and the principles of health care ethicsThe issue of human rights revolves around being just and treating patients equally. Asgary & Ramin (2013) suggests that the principle of justice requires that practitioners use

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