Applying Ethical Principles
Develop a solution to a specific ethical dilemma faced by a health care professional by applying ethical principles. Describe the issues and a possible solution in a 3-5 page paper.
Introduction
Whether you are a nurse, a public health professional, a health care administrator, or in another role in the health care field, you must base your decisions on a set of ethical principles and values. Your decisions must be fair, equitable, and defensible. Each discipline has established a professional code of ethics to guide ethical behavior. In this assessment, you will practice working through an ethical dilemma as described in a case study. Your practice will help you develop a method for formulating ethical decisions.
Instructions
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
For this assessment, develop a solution to a specific ethical dilemma faced by a health care professional. In your assessment:
Access the Ethical Case Studies media piece to review the case studies you will be using for this assessment.
Select the case most closely related to your area of interest and use it to complete the assessment.
Note: The case study may not supply all of the information you need. In such cases, you should consider a variety of possibilities and infer potential conclusions. However, please be sure to identify any assumptions or speculations you make.
Include the selected case study in your reference list, using proper APA style and format. Refer to the Evidence and APA section of the Writing Center for guidance.
Summarize the facts in a case study and use the three components of an ethical decision-making model to analyze an ethical problem or issue and the factors that contributed to it.
Identify which case study you selected and briefly summarize the facts surrounding it. Identify the problem or issue that presents an ethical dilemma or challenge and describe that dilemma or challenge.
Identify who is involved or affected by the ethical problem or issue.
Access the Ethical Decision-Making Model media piece and use the three components of the ethical decision-making model (moral awareness, moral judgment, and ethical behavior) to analyze the ethical issues.
Apply the three components outlined in the Ethical Decision-Making Model media.
Analyze the factors that contributed to the ethical problem or issue identified in the case study.
Describe the factors that contributed to the problem or issue and explain how they contributed.
Apply academic peer-reviewed journal articles relevant to an ethical problem or issue as evidence to support an analysis of the case.
In addition to the readings provided, use the Capella library to locate at least one academic peer-reviewed journal article relevant to the problem or issue that you can use to support your analysis of the situation. The NHS-FPX4000: Developing a Health Care Perspective Library Guide will help you locate appropriate references.
Cite and apply key principles from the journal article as evidence to support your critical thinking and analysis of the ethical problem or issue.
Review the Think Critically About Source Quality resource.
Assess the credibility of the information source.
Assess the relevance of the information source.
Discuss the effectiveness of the communication approaches present in a case study.
Describe how the health care professional in the case study communicated with others.
Assess instances where the professional communicated effectively or ineffectively.
Explain which communication approaches should be used and which ones should be avoided.
Describe the consequences of using effective and non-effective communication approaches.
Discuss the effectiveness of the approach used by a professional to deal with problems or issues involving ethical practice in a case study.
Describe the actions taken in response to the ethical dilemma or issue presented in the case study.
Summarize how well the professional managed professional responsibilities and priorities to resolve the problem or issue in the case.
Discuss the key lessons this case provides for health care professionals.
Apply ethical principles to a possible solution to an ethical problem or issue described in a case study.
Describe the proposed solution.
Discuss how the approach makes this professional more effective or less effective in building relationships across disciplines within his or her organization.
Discuss how likely it is the proposed solution will foster professional collaboration.
Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Apply the principles of effective composition.
Determine the proper application of the rules of grammar and mechanics.
Write using APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.
Determine the proper application of APA formatting requirements and scholarly writing standards.
Integrate information from outside sources into academic writing by appropriately quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, following APA style.
Sample Paper
Applying Ethical Principles
Everyone may be faced with an ethical dilemma that raises the issues of moral value in one way or the other. Most healthcare providers in practice are faced with ethical dilemmas and some factors have contributed to making ethical decisions. The healthcare providers can perform their duties well to the patients if they apply the principles of beneficence, maleficence, autonomy and justice (Doherty, 2020).
Overview of the Case Study
Jenna and Chris Smith are having a perspective of parenting organically since Ana, who is a 5-day old baby, is their first child. They believe that they have done adequate research on vaccines and they have found that it is more harmful than beneficial to use the vaccines. They have therefore decided not to vaccinate Ana and have also indicated that based on the blogs that they have previously watched, vaccines cause autism in children. After conversing with the parents, Dr Kerr provides them with the benefits of vaccination and he also gives some related risks and harms of not having a vaccination.
With the help of VAERS, Dr Kerr depicts how parents are encouraged by FDA and CDC to report any adverse reactions to vaccines as a way to have further investigations. The doctor also informs Jenna and Chris Smith of the unavailability of vaccines that causes autism in children. Dr Kerr also states that the vaccine is important to both Ana and children who are associated with her. The vaccine can protect Ana from getting communicable diseases among other children and those with genetic conditions.
Regardless of the information offered by Dr Kerr, Jenna and Chris Smith still reject the vaccine. The doctor is in a dilemma that requires her to respect the decision of the parents or to fulfil her duty as a healthcare provider to Ana.
Analysis of Ethical Issues in the Case Study
Jenna and Chris Smith rejecting the vaccination of Ana brought about an ethical dilemma to Dr Kerr. The doctor believes that as a healthcare provider to Ana, she is supposed to offer treatment that would prevent Ana from getting diseases and infections through prophylaxis interventions. The parents also inform Dr Kerr about the negative effects of vaccines and their findings on research from mommy-blogs about the negative impacts of vaccination. The doctor also gives them information on the controversies and the misconceptions involving the vaccines. Dr Kerr supports her argument by giving studies that have been approved and she also explains the benefits that the vaccine will have on Ana and the children close to her. The parents still go ahead to ignore the advice and believe that the vaccination is harmful to their child. Dr Kerr knows the importance of vaccination to a child and how it helps in immunity and she gets ethical dilemma due to Ana’s parent’s decision.
Using Ethical Decision-Making Model to Analyze the Case Study
The ethical decision-making model gives a great mechanism to critically plan the solutions to an ethical dilemma. Healthcare providers mostly use this model to make decisions in matters that lead to the ethical dilemma. To solve the issue between Ana’s parents and Dr Kerr, it will involve ethical behaviour, creating awareness and moral judgments. Moral judgment involves declaring an appropriate form to deal with problems that are in existence. It assists in the determination of a wrong and a right attribute. Moral awareness on the other hand involves personal values and morals. On ethical behaviour, one must have both moral awareness and judgment.
In the case study, Dr Kerr shows moral awareness when she informs Ana’s parents about the importance of vaccination. The doctor also educates the Smiths on the negative effects of not vaccinating Ana. Dr Kerr also shows ethical behaviour by insisting that Ana should undergo the process of vaccination.
Effectiveness of Communication Approaches in the Case Study
Since Dr Kerr is a healthcare provider to Ana, she acts as the connection between her and her parents. There is effective communication between the doctor and Ana’s parents since the parents give evidence of autism which they believe to be caused by the vaccine. The doctor also tries to prove that there is no vaccine that causes autism. There is effective communication since both the doctor and the parents show their interest to get the treatment option for the child. The doctor shows respect by listening keenly to the parents’ arguments and she answers by giving evidence and importance of vaccination. This communication between the doctor and the Smiths provides more knowledge about Ana’s health. Therefore, effective communication ensures that the healthcare provider and the parents get into an agreement to ensure the patient gets quality care (Anderson et al, 2019).
Resolving Ethical Dilemma by Applying Ethical Principles
The case study shows ethical principles which include; nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice and autonomy. Dr Kerr is determined to ensure that Ana gets vaccinated based on the principle of beneficence and she also considers the parents’ interest to ensure the principle of autonomy. The doctor also listens to the parents to support the principle of justice. For Dr Kerr to do away with the ethical dilemma, she should ensure the parents get more time to decide on vaccination. She should also give them books and articles to read to ensure they gain more knowledge on the importance of the vaccine.
Conclusion
The ethical model of decision-making assists greatly in solving ethical dilemmas in the health facility. Having effective communication between the healthcare provider and the parents reduces ethical dilemmas. In the case study, Dr Kerr and the parents communicated effectively and this shows how the doctor involved Jenna and Chris Smith in making decisions in treatment of Ana. This shows how Dr Kerr followed the principles of healthcare ethics.
References
Anderson, R. J., Bloch, S., Armstrong, M., Stone, P. C., & Low, J. T. (2019). Communication between healthcare professionals and relatives of patients approaching the end-of-life: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. Palliative medicine, 33(8), 926-941.
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269216319852007>
Doherty, R. F. (2020). Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
