Healthcare Ethics and Law: Reflection Paper on Chapters 1-3

This assignment is a critical reflection paper based on the provided readings from "Handbook for Rural Health Care Ethics" focusing on chapters 1-3. The student provides a concise overview of each chapter, which covers government law, healthcare ethics, and historical perspectives. The reflection explores the impact of government regulations and ethical principles in healthcare settings, emphasizing the importance of understanding legal and ethical standards in patient care. The student also discusses how historical events have shaped healthcare practices and service delivery. The reflection highlights the importance of ethical theories and moral standards in addressing dilemmas in healthcare and improving the quality of life for patients. The student also draws on the importance of patient protection and the affordable care act, emphasizing the need for health and human services practitioners to understand the interplay of law, ethics, and history in shaping current healthcare practices.

Running head: REFLECTION
1
Reflection
Student’s Name
University

REFLECTION
2
Reflection
The book for rural health care ethics recognizes the unique nature
of rural health and the challenges that occur in rural health and the
challenges that they face. Chapter one focusses on government laws and
ethics that define the way people access healthcare and the requirements
that make the quality of healthcare. In chapter two, the focus is on
healthcare ethics and how the concept of ethics and morality shape the
provision of healthcare services to different populations. Chapter three,
on the other hand, offers an overview of the historical elements that
shape the way healthcare patterns have developed and been influenced
by the past.
My view of the book is based on the understanding of the
challenges that rural healthcare dynamics affect the way people in rural
areas access healthcare. I think that it is important to understand the
differences in cultural and rural patterns of health that determine how
people in rural areas access healthcare (Nelson, 2009). This book,
therefore, offers the best tools and strategies that equip me with the right

REFLECTION
3
skills for achieving the needs of the practice. It provides case studies on
common ethical issues in rural communities and ways of addressing
them which improves the professional knowledge of the user. Thus by
understanding the common ethical issues in rural communities and the
ethical resources that I require to work well in rural settings. This book
changed my understanding of rural health and the need to develop
critical competencies for approaching the issues that such environments
create to professionals.
The first chapter of the articles is based on government law and
ethical issues that guide the work environment and the relationship
between the law the nature of work. As a nursing practitioner, an
understanding of the nature of the law and the different legal
requirements in situations lead to the best outcome in understanding how
to handle situations (Pogar, 2014). As a practitioner, I have a practicing
license which I am supposed to be held accountable for the actions and
decisions that I make. Since the license of practice comes with
responsibilities, I learned that I am required to meet the relevant legal

REFLECTION
4
and ethical standards that define how human services need to be done.
This means that as a practitioner, I am supposed to understand the
relationship between different arms of the government and the role that
they play in shaping service delivery within the human services sector.
This calls for an understanding of the needs of the department that I
work in and how the different ethical issues shape the way access to
services is enhanced.
On the other hand, chapter three of Pozgar (2014) draws on
different experiences in the past and how factors like religion and the
social life of people shape the way they access different services. By
understanding the different periods in history this chapter changed my
understanding of how history has shaped the field of health and even led
to the rise of the modern hospital. This has thus been based on
improving services as societies kept on advancing from the ancient
world to the current world. The need to provide better services is the
guiding principle behind history and I believe the healthcare system is

REFLECTION
5
still developing as new technologies come up to improve service
delivery.
Chapter two of George (2014) book offers an understanding of
healthcare ethics and their importance in the quality of healthcare. This
means that ethical morality defines a code of conduct that I can apply in
professional settings to overcome the moral dilemmas that nurses face in
different healthcare settings. The role of ethical theories is to define the
moral standards of human behavior that I need to follow when dealing
with different patients. Through theories like the consequentialist,
utilitarianism, deontological, I learned the way to deal with different
clinical settings through moral strengths that are required to handle
different medical situations. This creates different decision-making
strategies like circular and partial reasoning that lead to the best
decisions that are made within the organization.
What I observed from the book and the article about health and
human services is the fact that they have been based on improving
quality of life. Through ethical standards and laws that have been

REFLECTION
6
established in different eras of history, the health and human services
departments have evolved to become more accountable to the issues that
patients face and improving the quality of life. This can be seen in the
ethical considerations, government laws on ethics and the history of
health and human services that have taken place in the past. Thus the
knowledge gathered from the resources have improved my
understanding of human health services and created a better
understanding of how the needs of the clients can be met.
Therefore, human services describe different circumstances of
access to health that define the way people utilize services. This means
that as a practitioner, I have to understand the nature of the community
that I am dealing with and the special features of the population that
define the way healthcare and human services are accessed. From the
articles and the book, I have learned that patient protection and
affordable act are a result of the strides that have been made in history
and the need to improve human and health services. The role of the
affordable care act is thus to increase access to services by improving

REFLECTION
7
access and even service delivery in different parts of the country
including rural areas. Thus as a health and human services practitioner, I
need to understand the role of the law, ethical issues, and how the past
history shapes the nature of health and human services that exist today.

REFLECTION
8
References
Nelson, W. A. (2009). Handbook for Rural Health Care Ethics: A
Practical Guide for Professionals. Hanover: University Press of
New England.
Pogar, G. D. (2014). Legal and Ethical Essentials of Health Care
Administration: Chapter 1: Governmnet, Law adn Ethics. Jones &
Bartlett Learning .
Pozgar, G. D. (2014). Legal and Ethical Essentials of Health Care
Administration: Chapter 2: Healthcare Ethis. Jones and Bartlett
Learning.
George, D. P. (2014). Legal and Ethical Essentials of Health Care
Administration: Chapter 3: Reflections of the past. Jones and
Batlett Learning.