Morality and ethics: what are they and why do they matter?
All you need to know about ethics approaches and theories
Means, ends, principles and virtues six step process of ethical decision making for you to follow
Surviving professional life ethically
Ethical dimensions of the professional -patient relationship
Special challenges: "difficult patients" and patients in suicidal crisis
This is a time of great change in our understanding of health, illness, and health care systems. Medical researchers, practitioners, and administrators must realize that these changes are taking place and look to current, valid research for some answers to the questions which come with increasingly complicated technology and better medications. Since knowledge is the basis for effective decision making, one goal for any medical leader should be to attain as much knowledge as possible.
Ethics has been defined as "rules of conduct recognized in respect of a particular class of human actions." Certainly, a health care administrator should possess a strong sense of what is right and what isn't and have the courage to make sure that everyone in the health care organization understands the difference.
Four principles which health care practitioners must consider when faced with a dilemma are A) autonomy, B) beneficency, C) nonmalficence, and 4) justice. Autonomy is the independence to determine one's own direction, conditioned only by the need to respect others' individual liberties. Beneficence is the righteous philosophy of doing good, while nonmalficence adds the condition that no harm should be done. Justice, the quality which creates the most controversy, may be defined as fair, just, equitable, and unbiased decision making.1
Morality and ethics: what are they and why do they matter?
Case studies become much more than words on a page when health care professionals see these names as people, who hurt, are afraid, and look to you, a medical professional for comfort. The actions the medical practitioner take next will help define their moral values. As Dr. Purtilo states on page 7, "The goal of morality is to protect a high quality of life for an individual or for a community as a whole." When one enters training to become a health care professional, the next stop should be to prepare themselves to deal with three types of morality: their own, their society's, and that of society as a whole. These are pretty heavy topics for young people of 18 or 20 to ponder, but ponder them they must. If knowledge is the foundation of trust, morality must be its supporters. All medical professionals will encounter situations which should cause them to "search their souls" for the best answers. The case studies which Dr. Purtilo presents throughout this book are actually a means to play the "what if" game. "What if it were my father/husband/brother/son? What would I do?" Dr. Purtilo closes this first chapter by saying that the formation of our morality and values is an on-going process. Each case will present slightly different variables and questions, therefore each day will be a type of check-up of our values and morality.
All you need to know about ethics approaches and theories
Technologic advances are challenging the way health care is delivered and, more than ever, health practitioners as well as administrators are constantly confronted with ethical dilemmas. The DNR - do not resuscitate - order is one of the more challenging edicts to health care professionals today. The medical professional may have grown to know the patient and family well; the patient may be a terminally ill child or an older person who resembles your grandmother. The desire to save lives has been ingrained in all health professionals from the beginning of their training and perhaps ever longer. A DNR order is one which the patient's family has chosen to be the right course of action.
Dr. Purtilo makes mention of different types of ethics which suit several situations with the goal of giving health practitioners a choice or merely a moment to think before life and decisions must be made:
metaethics occur when one attempts to discover the nature and meaning of ethical reasons we propose for making judgments about morality. A thorough understanding of metaethics requires that one should become more familiar with your own beliefs - religious, philosophical, and how you decide what is right and what is wrong. Self-awareness will lead to knowledge and confidence in making difficult decisions.
A normative ethics ask concrete questions related to morality. Within the framework of normative ethics, a person may explore what types of actions are morally right or wrong, what are the actions or ideas which are morally praiseworthy? Answering...
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