Ethical Considerations in Health Care: A Detailed Essay

This essay delves into health care ethics, focusing on a case study involving a high school student named Amos who dies due to lack of access to treatment during a cholera outbreak. The essay identifies key ethical issues such as equal access to health care services, limited allocation of resources, end-of-life considerations, and the importance of human dignity. It discusses professional codes of ethics in nursing, emphasizing the need to respect patient rights and ensure their safety and well-being. The essay also highlights relevant policies and regulations, such as the Human Right Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, which aim to protect patient rights. Furthermore, it outlines the core principles of health care ethics, including autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence, underscoring the importance of providing equitable and beneficial care while minimizing harm. The essay concludes by emphasizing the duty of healthcare professionals to prioritize patient needs and ensure equal access to services, irrespective of circumstances.

Running head: ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
Name of the students:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
The health care ethics are one of the most important content in the recent days. The
ethical issues such as, discrimination in access to the health care, end life issue and allocation of
limited medication have become one of the most controversial discussions (Faden et al., 2013).
The case study is about Amos, a high school student, who was resided in a residential property
near the school. During the outburst of cholera in the school, most of the students were suffering
from the transmissible disease. Amos was not spared from the disease. Severe symptoms that
were noticed within the students admitted in the hospital include abdominal pain, vomiting,
thirst, profuse watery diarrhea, muscle cramp, irritability and restlessness. Due to shortage of
adequate resources, the triage doctors and nurses decided to provide health services only to the
student residing in the boarding of the school. Amos decided to return home as he was not a
boarder, but within few hours of his arrival, he died due to severe dehydration and shock.
There are many ethical issues regarding health care. According to the case study, the
main issue is equal access to the health care services to all. It is the purpose of every health care
service providers to make their service equally available to all people. All patients are needed to
be considered as equally important. Equal access to the health care service is the basic right of all
people. Thus, the issue has become an important part of the discussion regarding health care
ethics (Kangasniemi et al., 2013). Another ethical issue related to the case study is limited
allocation of common goods (Doody & Noonan, 2016). Adequate medicine and resource scarcity
occurs mainly due to the lack of economic resources. Proper medication and vaccination are
required in case of communicable diseases. Shortage of medication makes it difficult to provide
the treatment to all the people with need. End of life issue is an additional ethical issue of health
care regarding the case study. Shortage of medical resources and unequal access to the health
care services can be the reason behind the death of a patient. The issue of end of life is increasing

2ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
day by day with the increase in global population. Thus, it becomes one of the most affecting
ethical issues related to health care service (Lillemoen & Pedersen, 2013).
Human dignity in the field of health care is an important factor to be maintained (Edlund
et al., 2013). It is important to provide ethical behavior and value to every patient. In the case
study, the triage nurses and doctors decided to limit the treatment to the student residing in the
boarding. This was unethical, as all the students had received the illness within the school. It was
the duty of the health care professionals to take the responsibility of all the students. Amos had
argued with the school authority that while residing in the residential property, he was still a
student of the school. It was the duty of the concerned authority to provide proper treatment
considering his severe health condition. Though his argument regarding help did not work and he
was sent back to home without any health care service. Thus, the decision of the doctors and the
nurses of providing limited health care service was a step taken to give value to some students
and hamper the dignity of many others. The main reason of restricting the health services was
shortage of adequate medical resources. The students who were residing within the school
premises were the first priority of the concerned authority. Thus, the authority decided to provide
the limited medicines to them only. However, the purpose of every health care organization is to
provide equal medical service to all. It is the right of every individual to avail adequate health
care service including proper medication, food, healthy lifestyle and healthy environment to live.
In order to provide medication to the boarders the health care professionals neglected the severe
condition of the other students residing outside the school premises. It was a case of enforcement
of human rights. Amos was the student of the school when he was suffering from Cholera;
hence, it was his right to access treatment from the health care professionals who had taken the
responsibility of other students residing in the boarding. Their action of sending Amos back to

3ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
home without treatment was unethical regarding the violation of human rights. On the other
hand, it was a dilemma for the health care professionals that whether they would distribute the
medicine among the students equally without ensuring the adequate amount of medicine needed
by the individual or they would provide it to the students residing in the school premises doing
injustice to the students residing outside the boarding. However, according to the professional
codes of ethics in nursing, it is important for a health care professional to respect the human
dignity and human rights (Council, 2013). In the nursing profession, nurses value the needs of
the patients and their families. They try to understand the nature of the disease in order to prevent
or cure the illness. They make strategies regarding the interests of the patients to improve the
relationship with the patients. The health care professionals never exploit a patient for their
personal benefits. It is a factor of professional code to provide appropriate information to the
patients regarding the treatment and help them to understand the process of the treatment. The
professional code never allows the health care professionals to neglect the seriousness of a
patient. Collaboration is another component of professional code of ethics. It refers to the
cooperation of the health care professionals and the team effort to achieve expected outcomes.
According to the professional code of ethics in nursing, the most important duty of a health care
professional is to ensure the health condition, safety, dignity and rights of the patients. There are
many policies and regulations in order to ensure the dignity and rights of the patients. The health
care policies are provided by both the private and government organizations. The Human Right
Act, 1998, is one of the most beneficial acts. According to the act, it is one of the rights of every
individual to avail proper health care service and they have right to take legal steps against the
enforcement of human rights (Donnelly, 2013). The Equality Act, 2010, provides equal access to
the health care service to all (Geale, Henriksson & Schmitt‐Egenolf, 2016). Such acts play an

4ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
important role in ensuring the human dignity and human rights. In Australia, many organizations
provide proper guidance to the health care professionals. The Australian Primary Health Care
Nurses Association provides guidance to the nurses to improve their service (Halcomb et al.,
2016). It provides adequate education to the health care professionals to better understand the
profession and inspire them for providing efficient service. National Primary Health Care
Partnership plays an important role in order to provide primary health care service (Schäfer et al.,
2013). The role of such organizations in providing guidance to the health care professionals is
remarkable. The principles of health care ethics include autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-
maleficence (Melby et al., 2016). Autonomy refers to the right of the patients to thought and
make decision regarding the health care process. It is important for every patient to understand
the benefits and risks of every treatment procedure. They need to be informed properly by the
health care professionals before availing the treatment. Justice is defined as the equal distribution
of the ideas of new research and technology regarding health care service and their benefits to all
(Almgren, 2017). In order to evaluate the principle of justice, it is important to consider the
factors like equal distribution of medical resources, rights and dignity of all patients, competing
needs and conflicts with implemented legislation. Beneficence means to make understand all the
patients that the health care service is provided for their benefits. It ensures that, adequate
education and training is provided to the health care professionals in order to improve their
efficiency of providing service. Non-maleficence refers to the process of treatment that is
harmless to the individual. Sometimes it becomes difficult for the health care professionals to
provide completely harmless treatment. In this case, they need to ensure that, the treatment
provides less harm and more benefits to the patients.

5ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
From the above case study, it can be said that, the purpose of health care professionals is
to provide equal service to all. It is their duty to understand the needs of the individual and
ensure the dignity and rights of the patients. Due to some consequence, for example, shortage of
medical resources, the health care service is not available equally to all. The health care
professionals need to understand the seriousness of the illness of individual. They should make
access their service to all in order to build trust within people. Their priority should focus the
severe condition rather than region or community. They need to understand the importance of
their service in providing health and wellness to the society.

6ESSAY ON HEALTH CARE ETHICS
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