Death & Dying

I need just one page for this assignment. Please, no plagiarism

This week the focus is on ethical issues surrounding death and dying. Your readings and the videos provided definitions of four different documents considered necessary for proper management of end of life decisions. Choose two of these documents and briefly compare and contrast their use, benefits and disadvantages. Remember to support your information!

READING

Although there are many different legal and ethical issues that health care professionals might face in the health care industry, the most common issues are related to confidentiality, consent, and patient rights.

Confidentiality

Perhaps one of the most important issues that health care professionals encounter on a daily basis is the issue of confidentiality. It is defined as the need to protect and keep private any information about an individual that is deemed privileged. This could include a range of information such as various medical problems, addictions to drugs or alcohol, sexually transmitted disease, mental illness, and anything else related to a person’s medical condition or history (Marshall, 2004).

Medical professionals are “bound both legally and ethically as employees to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patient–physician interactions” (Marshall, 2004). This same right to confidentiality can be applied in virtually any health care setting. Discretion regarding this must be exercised, especially in seemingly innocent situations.

Take for example, two nurses conversing in an elevator. They are discussing their day and one of them brings up Mrs. Jones and proceeds to talk about the details of her office visit. Another person joins them in the elevator and overhears the whole conversation. She happens to know Mrs. Jones and cannot believe what Mrs. Jones is being treated for. The person immediately calls her friends and spreads the news of what is really wrong with Mrs. Jones. Is this a breach of confidentiality even though it was not done on purpose? Did the nurses breach both their ethical and legal duties to protect the confidentiality of the patient? The answer is yes to both questions because the nurses, though unintentionally, breached Mrs. Jones’s right to confidentiality by discussing her private information where others could hear it.

Consent

Patient consent is also another very important topic in health care. As a health care provider, it is your duty both ethically and legally to obtain informed consent from a patient before a procedure is performed. Informed consent is defined as the process by which the physician informs the patient of the risks, benefits, and alternatives to a particular procedure in words that the patient can understand. In addition, when obtaining this consent, the patient must not be pressured to sign the consent and must be fully capable of understanding the procedure along with all of its risks and benefits (Marshall, 2004).

Patient Rights

Just as patients have certain responsibilities when it comes to their own health care, they also can expect to have rights as health care consumers. To accomplish this, the American Hospital Association (AHA) drafted what is known as the patient bill of rights. In this bill of rights, both the patients and health care providers are aware of what is expected in terms of the patients’ care (Marshall, 2004). A sampling of these rights include the following (Marshall, 2004):

· The right to considerate and respectful care

· The right to all necessary information regarding their care, including the risks, benefits, and alternatives to the proposed treatments

· The right to informed consent

· The right to refuse treatment while still being informed of the consequences of this refusal

· The right to expect a reasonable continuity of care

· The right to confidentiality of the patient’s personal and protected health care information

· The right to discuss the patient’s condition or treatment options in a discreet manner, and to exclude any person not directly involved in the care of the patient from the discussion

Conclusion

The issues shared here are only a sampling of the issues that one may face as a health care professional. It is important, before acting on any of these or other issues, to first consider the ethical and legal obligations that one has as a medical professional.

Reference

Marshall, J. (2004). Being a medical clerical worker (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Other Resources

Boucher, N. A. (2016). Direct engagement with communities and inter-professional learning to factor culture into end-of-life health care delivery. American Journal of Public Health, 106(6), 996-1001. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303073
Database: Academic Search Complete

Jacobs, C. A. (2014). Legal issues involved in ‘do not resuscitate’ orders. Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 25(2), 30-35. Retrieved from http://www.aalnc.org/page/the-journal-of-legal-nurse-consulting
Database: CINAHL Plus with Full Text

Mendes, F. R. (2013). Active ageing: A right or a duty? Health Sociology Review, 22(2), 174-185. doi:10.5172/hesr.2013.22.2.174
Database: Academic Search Complete

Schlairet, M. C., & Cohen, R. W. (2013). Allow-natural-death (AND) orders: Legal, ethical, and practical considerations. HEC Forum, 25(2), 161-71. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10730-012-9181-1
Database: ABI Inform Collection

Stabile, B., & Grant, A. (2016). How do we die?. Politics & The Life Sciences, 35(2), 69-74. doi:10.1017/pls.2016.12

Database: Academic Search Complete

Victoria, K., & Patel, S. (2016). The Palliative Care Information Act and access to palliative care in terminally ill patients: A retrospective study. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 22(4), 427-431. doi:10.4103/0973-1075.191774
Database: CINAHL Plus with Full Text