Report: Ethical and Legal Considerations in Community Health Services

This report delves into the ethical and legal frameworks governing community and health services, highlighting the distinctions between them and the challenges encountered in practice. It examines ten key issues in legal and ethical considerations, including those related to incapacitated adults, patient rights, and decision-making for individuals with mental health conditions. The report defines the legal concept of duty of care, emphasizing its alignment with workplace requirements and the responsibility of healthcare professionals to protect patients from harm. It also provides practical solutions to ethical dilemmas and outlines the importance of policies, procedures, and protocols in healthcare settings, including staff consultation during policy development. The conclusion summarizes the report's findings, underscoring the importance of ethical conduct and adherence to legal standards in healthcare practice.

Summative Assessment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 2...................................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 3...................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 4...................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 5...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

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INTRODUCTION
The ethical and legal framework defines the rules, code and provisions for the conduct of
employees in every organisation. The present report includes the difference between these two
framework and issues faces under these frameworks in community and health services work. The
legal issue of duty of care is defined and the ethical issues faced by staff are given a solution and
the policies, procedures and protocols.
QUESTION 1
The ten issues in legal and ethical consideration in community and health services are as follows:
1. For the incapacitated adult the parents or family are obliged to take care of that person
can health care practitioner force the same.
2. The issues related with care takers of patients as having a right to diagnoses the mental
health of those patients.
3. The issue related with a right for transportation of an incapacitated patient.
4. The issues related with letting drug addicts and intoxicated person to make their own
decisions.
5. The ethical dilemma of letting the society a right to override the decisions taken by
parents for their child.
6. The legal rights of a society to make a decision over the choice of person to die.
7. The legal issue related with the rights is inferred to the society over the health
information which is required to save large population from early death.
8. The ethical issues of handling a dispute between the senior management and a patient.
9. The ethical dilemma of taking an informed decision by a mentally ill person.
10. The legal issue related with abiding code of conduct while treating patients under mental
health care service.

QUESTION 2
The legal framework:
The legal framework can be defined as that system which comprise of relevant central
and states constitutes, acts of parliament and regulations which all the communities and business
must comply with (Conklin, Morris and Nolte, 2015). All the workers, employees as well as
employers regardless of their field profession and operation operate within legal framework
which means they need to work within the laws and statues along with regulations and standards
as set boundaries.
Ethical framework:
The ethical framework can be defined as a system of principles, rules to the standards
which judges the human actions as right or wrong. All the workers, employee and employers
irrespective of their job and profession have to operate with this set rules and principles while
carrying out roles and responsibilities with their own valves and beliefs which they need to be
aware of and have to deal on a daily basis.
QUESTION 3
Duty of care and its alignment with legal requirement at the workplace can be defined as
to ensure that all the people at the workplace work safely by abiding with the relevant legislation.
The duty of care is a legal duty where a responsibility is given to take reasonable care so that
other's aren't harmed and it includes identification of the risks and taking reasonable care for
preventing and protecting such risks (Ben-Assuli, 2015). Duty of car is simple a legal obligation
to always act in the best interest of people and others, not to act or failed to act in such a way
that results in harm. A care worker owns a duty of care to the people they provide services, to
colleagues, employers and public interest. A person in the community and health service must
abide with all legal requirement while giving support and care services under the duty of carte
owed by them (Principles for implementing duty of care, 2019).
QUESTION 4
1. As a health care employee i am required to intervene immediately and stop the other staff
member for doing such thing and if need to report such behaviours of the member from to the
management for indulging in-such an unethical behaviour.
2. Working for a health care organisation I am required to remind the seniors staff members that
this is not a good behaviour in the position they are in and require to report this to the
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management as this can lead to indulgence of other staff members in such an unethical
behaviour.
3. For such an case as a employee of a health care organisation i am required to inform the staff
member and then tell him/her that the way he/she moves the client from the bad is causing
bruises to the patients and definitely show this to that person when next time he/she moves client
from bed. i am required to inform such to the senior doctors as well.
4. I am required to talk to the child and let him/her the importance of the food given and
requirement of it to be eaten (Hunter, 2018). Also i must make the child understand that this will
not be against the religion and the religion do not tell anything that has to be done if is against
ones health.
QUESTION 5
Policies, procedures and protocols:
The polices are the course of actions which are adopted by organisation and these are set
of policies and principles, rules and the guidelines formulated or adopted by an business or
organisation for reaching a long term goal. Procedures are the specific methods which are
employed to express the policies in actions to apply them in to day operation of the organisation.
Together the policies and procedure ensures that the views of governing bodies are translated
into steps to follow them (Legal and ethical framework, 2019). The protocols are the official
systems of rules that governs the affairs of state or diplomatic relations. The staff of an
organisation is required to be consulted when developing policies or reviewing because they
know all know the working structure and prevailing conditions of the organisation can make
significant suggestion over the policy making and changes.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that that community and health service staff
faces various legal as well as ethical issues while making a decision over the treatment and care
of individuals. The legal framework provides laws and status to be followed by health care
organisation and the ethical framework defines rules and Principe to conduct the behaviours and
actions of staff in rights direction. It is further articulated that duty of care is legal duty imposed
on the health care staff to take reasonable care of the patients and to avoid all the risk of harm to
them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Conklin, A., Morris, Z. and Nolte, E., 2015. What is the evidence base for public involvement in
health‐care policy?: results of a systematic scoping review. Health Expectations. 18(2).
pp.153-165.
Hunter, D. J., 2018. Desperately seeking solutions: rationing health care. Routledge.
Ben-Assuli, O., 2015. Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, legal and privacy
issues and their implementation in emergency departments. Health policy. 119(3). pp.287-
297.
Online
Legal and ethical framework. 2019. [Online]. Available through
:<https://etraining.communitydoor.org.au/course/view.php?id=3>.
Principles for implementing duty of care. 2019. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.scie.org.uk/workforce/induction/standards/cis05_dutyofcare.asp>.
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