GeneralEthics in Healthcare: Why Workers Should Ensure Ethical Conduct

The healthcare industry is a vast and complex field that involves collaborating with people professionally. Ethics are a vital aspect of professional practice in healthcare. Ethical principles and codes of conduct enable professionals to understand their role as caregivers and promote respect for patients, colleagues, and other critical stakeholders. Ethics also plays an integral role in ensuring patient safety and providing all access to care.

There are two fundamental areas of healthcare ethics: bioethics and clinical ethics. These focus on issues related to healthcare, including legal norms and professional standards.

Healthcare workers encounter many ethical challenges in the workplace, ranging from neglecting patients to incorrectly prescribing medications. If you fail to adhere to the principles of good practice, you may face disciplinary action or even termination.

Significance of Ethics in the Healthcare Industry

Ethics are indispensable in healthcare since they allow workers to make sound judgments and decisions while ensuring patient safety and recovery. As a healthcare worker, you are responsible for ensuring that your patients receive high-quality care and that their rights are respected and protected.

In all subfields and domains of healthcare, ethics hold paramount significance. For instance, psychologists are ethically mandated to maintain patient privacy and confidentiality. Even those carrying out research cannot use patient information without their permission. Most psychology professionals pursuing accredited PsyD programs conduct research to corroborate findings and theories. However, upholding patient confidentiality, safety, and moral conduct is their prime responsibility.

Now, we will discuss further reasons why healthcare professionals should ensure ethical conduct:

1. Respect for Autonomy

Autonomy enables us to make decisions independently and determine the course of our actions. Patients can consult with their doctors and make decisions about their healthcare. As a healthcare worker, you should respect the patient’s autonomy and educate them about the available options rather than forcing any course of action on them.

Clinical decisions in healthcare must be made with the patient’s best interests as the primary focus. And this often involves supporting the patient’s autonomy, even when making decisions against the wishes of the patient’s family.

The duty of healthcare workers not to exploit patients is one that requires honesty in all dealings with patients, including those who are unable or unwilling to decide for themselves.

2. Beneficence

Beneficence is a moral principle that requires healthcare providers to act in the best interest of their patients, as opposed to doing harm or being negligent.

Beneficence involves honesty and truthfulness. You need to tell the truth about all medical issues and not mislead patients about anything related to their health. You need not engage in self-deception when making decisions about patients’ care and avoid medical malpractice for your gain.

3. Nonmaleficence

Nonmaleficence is an ethical principle that forbids workers from harming others. It means that you are obligated not to cause harm or injury to your patients so long as your actions lie within the scope of accepted practice. For example, if a patient requires an operation but refuses consent for surgery (i.e., refuses life-saving treatment), there would be no medical justification for performing this procedure unless another alternative is available.

4. Justice

The principle of justice is based on the idea that people should be treated fairly and equally, regardless of their social standing or ability to pay for healthcare services.

For example, if a patient has a terminal illness and cannot afford treatment, it would be wrong to deny them care because they cannot afford it.

As a healthcare worker, you need to recognize people’s rights and interests when deciding how you will treat them.

In addition, justice requires us to treat all parties fairly. This principle also mandates equal consideration across all stakeholders providing healthcare services, such as insurers, government agencies, and regulatory bodies.

5. Fidelity

Fidelity is about being honest, open, and transparent. It means that you must be truthful to the patient. You must also be honest about the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan.

Suppose any doctor makes an error in this area. In that case, they have a duty of fidelity by correcting it as soon as possible. Alongside being truthful in communications, doctors must be accurate when describing results from laboratory tests or imaging studies such as CT scans.

A physician’s duty of fidelity extends beyond patients. It also includes colleagues who may not fully understand what is happening and those outside the profession.

6. Veracity

Veracity is the quality or state of being truthful and honest.

• Truthfulness: A healthcare provider must always be honest and accurate, whether it involves a diagnosis or treatment plan. It includes providing information on how a patient can improve their health and any risks associated with the treatment plan.
• Honest: For patients to trust their healthcare provider, your job is to provide reliable information that helps patients make informed decisions about their well-being. And this means giving them accurate facts about the diverse types of treatments available out there today.

7. Prudence

Prudence is the ability to make good and viable decisions in the face of uncertainty, risk, and complexity. It involves being perceptive, discriminating in thought and action, acting wisely, and being cautious in the face of risk.

The principle of prudence is not to be confused with the principle of non-maleficence. The latter requires that health workers act to promote the good of their patients. In contrast, the former requires them to use their professional knowledge and skills to ensure that patients receive safe and effective care.

Medical practitioners must exercise caution when providing care so as not to expose themselves or others involved. You are also obligated to inform patients about all known risks and the potentially harmful side effects of any procedures or treatments.

Final thoughts

Healthcare is an ever-evolving industry responsible for people’s lives and the entire community’s well-being.

Ethical conduct helps to build trust between healthcare workers and patients, which makes both parties feel comfortable with each other. As a healthcare professional, you must ensure that all your actions are ethical in every situation.

You should also be aware of all the ethical conduct in healthcare so as not to tarnish your organization’s professional reputation.

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