Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare Essay

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Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare

Healthcare ethics have to do with the wide range of moral decisions that have to be made in medical practice. These are the other considerations that have to be made besides the regular policies and procedures designed for effective medical practice. Of the various aspects of the human body and life, none is as important as health. Technological advancements in the practice of medicine and healthcare, in general, emerge with their sets of moral dilemmas. Many of such issues arise from developments in genetic knowledge and reproductive health (Taylor, 2015).

The relationship between the patient and the healthcare expert, the human subject behavioral research, harvesting and transplanting of human organs, abortion, euthanasia, and allocation of healthcare resources and services are other areas that present moral dilemmas. In the clarification of moral issues in healthcare provision, and consequently, understood, healthcare quality as it is received and practiced should be improved qualitatively (Taylor, 2015).

There is a need to make an ethical decision whenever a healthcare expert meets a situation where there is a competition between values or uncertainty. These dilemmas could arise at personal, professional, organizational, and societal levels. Once a healthcare officer meets such a dilemma, they must take into consideration various influencing factors. These factors include the law, beneficence, autonomy, and nonmaleficence, and juxtapose them with professional, ethical codes of conduct. There are many reasons why there is a growing concern over ethical issues in the practice of medicine and healthcare in general. Such issues as accessibility, quality, the safety of patients, acquisitions and mergers, value-based care, affordability, and financial constraints all converge to make the situation baffling when one has to make hard decisions close to the end of life. The healthcare administrators and executives need to address the wide range of ethical dilemmas that practitioners face in the course of their work today. Such a step should be taken conscious of the need to involve all stakeholders in the process. When there are sounds and systematic process for deciding, it can be an accepted tool to help healthcare executives deal with ethically confusing situations (Yip, Han &Sng, 2016).

Problems of implementing ethical decisions

One challenge that healthcare experts face in implementing ethical decisions is the lack of education on ethical decision making. While medical staff faces dilemmas almost daily, the problem is not helped by the fact that the dilemmas encountered are not documented; neither is there any information giving details of how such dilemmas were overcome. Nurses' ability to handle dilemmas in the course of their profession could be a result of their experience in previous ethical situations at various levels, such as individual, regional, organizational, national, and even at the international level. The encounters at these various levels could present huge challenges in implementing ethical decisions (Webster et al., 2000).

Ethical circumstances in which there is no action could imply that the healthcare worker is aware that there may be a problem, whichever decision is made. An ethical dilemma could result from a nurse being unable to meet her commitments and obligations, ethically. They may be unable to take what they know is the right course of action of simply failed to live up to the expected practice standards. According to Webstar and Baylis (2000), such a situation could be an outcome of a judgment error, inadequate personal resolve to act on required ethical expectations, or some other influences beyond the control of such a nurse(Webster et al., 2000).

Situations of uncertainty about ethics emerge when a healthcare expert is not sure of the ethical requirements or which ones to apply in a given situation. It has been observed that healthcare workers often inherit values. These values, when held personally and as professional beliefs, can stand in the way of implementing standard ethical decisions (Webster et al., 2000).

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Ethical Theories

There have been many ethical theories developed over the years to regulate the moral behavior of human beings. The categorical imperative of Kant and general deontological theories are relevant and can be used in any issues relating to healthcare. For instance, if a patient on opioid prescription for a short period, after surgery, were to think of feigning the continued pain experience during the after-surgery visits. He assumes this to obtain a fresh prescription of the same medicine, and abet the addiction to opioid of a friend; then the patient would be trying to view the surgeon only as a means to gain an and end. Any move to make a uniform maxim for an action like that would lead to contradictions. The categorical imperative by Kant would enable one to realize that an action like that should not be taken (Taylor, 2015).

According to virtue theories, if a person exhibits virtuous behavior, it is the foundation of their ethical life. Nevertheless,…

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…want to show gratitude for the care already given (Chenet al, 2014).

Strategies for Reducing Ethical Dilemmas

Making decisions based on ethical considerations can be learned. Such learning can be drawn from the understanding of the principles of ethics, the process of making decisions, the nursing code, and ethical theories. Therefore, all nurses would gain from in-depth knowledge of ethical principles and the process of making decisions. This would boost their skills in deciding. Availing avenues for discussion of ethical dilemmas and making decisions could help mitigate the challenges (Nora et al., 2016).

There is also a need to conduct workshops for addressing ethical matters regularly for nurses. In a lot of the health institutions around, ethical committees only meet to make decisions on research findings. It is important to have groups where nurses can exchange information, share experiences, and ventilate over the encounters they have to deal with. Such groups could assume leadership in creating awareness on ethical matters. There is a need for all nurses across the plane to frequently review their nursing practice and identify situations that called for ethical decisions in their work, and how they overcame such situations. Dialogues could be pursued about these issues to reach a consensus on the course of action in similar happenings in the future. Such a practice could also encourage the documentation of encounters and better situation analysis. The result would be a better-equipped healthcare worker with adequate skills in ethical matters (Nora et al., 2016).

Ethical practice in nursing also calls for acting as advocates for the patients. The issue of quacks should also be addressed to enhance professional standards. Nurses in practice should also be equipped with new knowledge and skills in their practice areas. To promote competent and safe ethical care, there is a need to keep enriching the nursing field with new and relevant research where it can be done (Nora et al., 2016).

Conclusion

To improve the quality of ethics in healthcare, organizations therein require tools they can use to measure the standards of ethical practice. Then, they can tell whether the practice conforms with the expectations of established norms in the organizations. The measures will make it possible to compare the various services in a range of settings over time. Although some instruments have been developed to focus on small aspects of the quality of ethics such as confidentiality, privacy, ethical leadership, consultation, and patient-centered….....

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