Outline Essay

Running Head: ETHICAL ISSUES AND DILEMMAS IN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM 1

ETHICAL ISSUES AND DILEMMAS IN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM 2

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in Healthcare System.

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Introduction

Since time immemorial, there have been many ethical issues and challenges that have been affecting and perhaps posing a lot of impacts on patients/ families who seek medical attention from various healthcare facilities in America. Being healthy is an essential aspect for one to live well and perhaps achieve longevity. Health facilities have been set up purposely to ensure that public health objectives are met as per the policies and guidelines provided by the healthcare sector (Caffo, 2011). It should be known that nurses play a very critical role in the provision of quality services to the patients regardless of the illness, medical condition, or even the background of the patients seeking medical heap. Perhaps working with patients, nurses, and other medical practitioners will have many occasions they need to call nursing ethics to help them deal with complex and most challenging situations.

Each and every day, nurses in all hospitals and hospital departments face various ethical challenges which force them to reconcile their own values with their professional nursing duties. There are numerous reasons why most nurses cannot reconcile ethical conflicts, such as lack of adequate time for consultation due to the emergence of the medical situation and lack of enough resources to do so. There are many issues and implications regarding not addressing the ethical issues; these include but are not limited to burnouts and nurses leaving their units or even the entire professional (Breslin, MacRae, Bell, & Singer, 2005). With regard to ethical issues surrounding the healthcare system in the United States, this discussion paper will focus on providing more insights into several ethical challenges and dilemmas faced by nurses and health organizations, in particular, elaborate on the history of identified ethical issues, describe the ethical dilemmas identified in the healthcare system, justifies why such practices may be considered ethical dilemmas, highlight various ethical theories, lenses, or models which will encompass both traditional and modern ethical ideas, offer most applicable solutions to such moral issues with respect to ethical theory analysis and perhaps give conclusive remarks as to how I as a participant in the solution could handle the implications as a result of ethical dilemmas

History of an ethical issue in the workplace. Provide a brief background of the organization, describe the dilemma, and justify why this experience is a moral dilemma.

Ethics are defined as moral standards and principles that people, individuals, or even organizations regulate and govern their decision-making behaviors. Adhering to moral principles serves as a guide to our daily living and helps us to be able to ascertain and perhaps judge our behavior whether our actions are justifiable or unjustifiable. Ethics refers to the society’s sense of the right way of behavior within the society in our everyday life, and it does this by developing principles, rules, values on which we can base our actions and conduct within the society (Caffo, 2011).

On the other hand, a dilemma occurs in a decision-making context when picking of any of the available alternatives requires the agent to compromise or even violation on their ethical standards. Ethical difficulties typically arise between available options where no matter what a person does, some ethical principles will be compromised in the long run (Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009). Worth mentioning is that ethical decisions involve analyzing different alternatives and eliminating those alternatives with an unethical standpoint, and choosing the best ethical alternatives to deploy. Among the ethical dilemmas facing healthcare organizations are the challenge of substitute decision-making when patients are incapable of making their own decisions on a particular health issue.

Another ethical dilemma experienced in healthcare organizations is the challenge of honesty vs. withholding patient’s information, autonomy vs. beneficence, healthcare needs vs. resource allocation, and science vs. spiritual holdings among some patients within a healthcare setting (Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009). The history of substitute decision making began a long time ago when medical research put forth that when patient’s health condition makes them unable to make their own decisions about treatment options to be provided with, then the medical team has to take the imitative to turn to the substitute decision-maker to make the decision on behalf of the patients. With respect to the legal hierarchy of decision-makers, the most intimate of the patient will be given the priority of making the decision. This aspect poses critical challenges, more so when decisions are attached to making a potentially life-altering or life-ending decision on behalf of their loved ones.

The decisions pose the most significant risks and burden the nurse experiences, more so when there is no written guidance has been provided by the patient and the family as to what might be in the best interest of the patients (Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009). Nurses have no authority to deny the most intimate substitute decision-maker legally, thus making it difficult to arrive at the most appropriate alternative given that they can’t alter the decision made by the substitute decision-maker even if it may not serve the interest of the patient. Secondly, it is issued to do with telling the truth by the family members vs. withholding patient’s information pose a critical ethical dilemma in the healthcare system. Family members may withhold a patient’s medical information by considering the patient's emotions. However, patients have the right to know about their medical conditions, withholding information may pose challenges in providing quality care for the patient, and by telling the truth, the patient may lose hope in life, thus worsening their health condition.

Perhaps nurses are required to administer prescribed medicine, but due to respect of autonomy, patients may go again and wish to be provided with alternative treatment based on their cultural backgrounds. This challenges nurses on what to take; ethically, nurses are supposed to provide standard and acceptable medical prescriptions as per the beneficence rule, but at the same time, nurses are also expected to respect the decisions of the patients in the choice of their treatment alternatives. This is critically difficult as the nurses may choose either of the two, which at one point may be harmful according to the patients’ perceptions and their spiritual and cultural standpoint (Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009).

Academic research on ethical theories, lenses, or models. Include both modern and traditional ethical theories in your analysis.

Among the theories I will deploy in my ethical dilemma analysis include utilitarianism theory, deontology theory, and natural law theory. According to utilitarianism theory, philosophers argue that any actions that are triggered to foster happiness and pleasure are ethical as opposed to actions that cause harm or unhappiness (Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009). With respect to substitute decision-maker's decisions on the patient's fate, it will be considered morally good if the actions and decisions made cause no harm to the patient regardless of lack of consent of the patient prior to decisions deployed. The principles of utilitarianism hold that pleasure is the only thing that promotes intrinsic value, actions are rights as long as they promote happiness, and everyone's happiness counts with equal measures.

The deontology theory suggests that actions are bad or good based on clear set rules and guidelines. The duty of nurses is to respect the autonomy of the patients regardless of the consequences of their decisions (Waymack, 2018). Patients have the right to reject any form of treatment they feel uncomfortable with, even if it will mean they lose their lives actions nurses will be considered right with reference to the respect of autonomy. Finally, the natural law theory argues that humans have intrinsic values that rule out their reasons and behavior; this, therefore, provides nurses with the choice of liberty to deploy the most applicable methods of treatment without much consultation of the rules created by the society.

Explore ramifications of potential solution options based on the ethical theory analysis.

Based on the ethical theories, it will be necessary for n the healthcare system and educational institutions that offer medical training courses to address the top ethical issues and conflicts affecting both patients and nurses by educating healthcare professionals on both communication skills, mediation, and negotiation skills that are essential in addressing ethical disputes and serious disagreements health care system should create policies for healthcare institutions that are consistency and with the ability to handle health-related disagreements particular those related to ending of life issues (Breslin, MacRae, Bell, & Singer, 2005). Lastly, it will be advisable for healthcare providers to consider examining the patient’s perspective to adequately understand the aspect of patient’s substitute decision-makers to reduce ethical dilemmas and serious disagreements that may arise due to misunderstandings between patients and healthcare teams.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, my role will be exploring the plausibility of approaching policy development via the inclusion of the public and perhaps engaging public consolations. This will provide an opportunity to gather diverse ideas and value systems that can be conjointly be brought together to discuss the ethical challenges, an aspect that may prove to be more fruitful than the application of the standards using a top-down approach. Secondly, it is good to make the public informed through continuous reporting of the existence of such challenges and progress made to address the challenges (Breslin, MacRae, Bell, & Singer, 2005). The implications of the consequences will be developing the decision about the ethical issues with respect to the above-mentioned ethical theories and draft a final summary of thoughts, approaches, and system values which will provide the basis for selecting the most applicable policies and systems to address ethical challenges in the healthcare system.

References

Caffo, S. M. (2011). Through the Looking Glass: Instinctual and Cultural Influences on U.S. Workers' Views of Ethics and the Workplace. Transactional Analysis Journal, 41(2), 162-172. doi:10.1177/036215371104100213

Herring, J. (2017). 1. Ethical theories. Legal Ethics. doi:10.1093/he/9780198788928.003.0001

Mujtaba, B. G., & Civico, F. J. (2013). Corporate Wellness Programs: Implementation Challenges in the Modern American Workplace. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 1(3), 193-199. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2013.36

Rykkje, L., Holm, A. L., & Hem, M. H. (2020). Norwegian Nurses’ Reflections Upon Experiences of Ethical Challenges in Older People Care - A Qualitative Thematic Analysis. doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-26698/v1

Sekerka, L. E., Bagozzi, R. P., & Charnigo, R. (2009). Facing Ethical Challenges in the Workplace: Conceptualizing and Measuring Professional Moral Courage. Journal of Business Ethics, 89(4), 565-579. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-0017-5

Waymack, M. H. (2018). Ethical Theories I. Ethical Issues in Aviation, 3-16. doi:10.4324/9780429436789-2