A health care case in need of evaluation using the steps to ethical decision making is described in Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions by Ruth B. Purtilo and Regina F. Doherty. According to the book, a student named Andrea was working in the outpatient clinic one morning when she saw someone she knew. Her father’s business partner, Mr. Brown, whose health was failing and interfering with his earnings according to her father, was sitting in the waiting area chatting with another man. The man was young and very different from Mr. Brown, wearing a torn leather jacket. Andrea did not think anything of it at the time because she remembered her father admiring the fact that Mr. Brown has the ability to have friends in all walks of life. After hanging up her coat, Andrea returns and notices the other man is gone.
She now is supposed to take Mr. Brown’s clinical history and prepare him for his tests. After Andrea leads Mr. Brown to the changing room, she notices he dropped something out of his pocket outside of the room. When she picks up the brown bag, she finds a syringe and a small plastic bag of white powder labeled “Brown, $450” (Purtilo and Doherty 131).
Andrea needs to use the six step method to decision making that Purtilo and Doherty lay out in Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions to help solve her predicament. Gather Relevant Information
Step one of the decision making process is to gather relevant information. In this situation, not a lot of information is known. As far as clinical information, all Andrea knows is that he is there for some tests, what she learned from asking him his history, and according to her father, Mr. Brown’s health is failing. Andrea does not know for sure what the bag contains, although it is easy to guess being that there is a syringe with the powder, and it was labeled as four hundred and fifty dollars. She does not know for sure if he has used drugs before or if he has just bought them for the first time.
The Essay on Health Care Information Terms
After you have defined each term in your own words, describe in 40 to 60 words the health care setting in which each term would be applied. Utilize a minimum of two research sources to support your claims—one from the University Library and the other from the textbook. Be sure to cite your sources in the References section consistent with APA guidelines. Term Definition How Used in Healthcare ...
Andrea has not yet told Mr. Brown of her discovery, and he has not been given a chance to defend himself. What Andrea does know is that Mr. Brown is possibly harming himself, and if he were to stop doing drugs and get clean, his quality of life may improve, and the “failing health” her father talked about would not be an issue for his career any longer. The last of any relevant information that can be obtained from the case study as it is written in the book is that the outpatient clinic Andrea works in probably has some kind of policy regarding drugs and that there are serious legal implications depending on which action Andrea takes. Identify Type of Ethical Problem
Now that all relevant information has been gathered, Andrea needs to complete step two by identifying the type of ethical problem this situation represents. The three types of ethical problems are ethical dilemmas (when two courses diverge and one right choice is picked while the other choice which is also right is not), locus of authority problem (when it is undeterminable who should have the authority to make an important ethical decision), and moral distress (when one cannot do what they know is right) (Purtilo and Doherty 53).
Andrea’s situation would be described as moral distress. According to Ann Gallagher in an article she wrote called “Moral Distress and Moral Courage in Everyday Nursing Practice”, moral distress is described as feelings that are painful, and as a psychological imbalance or disequilibrium that occurs when nurses find themselves in situations where they feel unable to do the right thing.
The Essay on Freedom And Its Problems The Life Of Neaera
Freedom and its Problems: The Life of Neaera (pg. 111) Ancient Greece, the inventor of democracy, philosophy and much of modern western culture and thought, was also the proprietor of the most dehumanizing institution known to mankind, slavery. The excerpt from The Ancient World, Readings in Social and Cultural History, entitled The Life of Neaera, tells the ever so sad story of a slave girl sold ...
Andrea knows what the right thing to do is, but she is blocked from doing it because she knows Mr. Brown personally (or at least through her father), and if she reports him for having the drugs, she could destroy his life which in turn could destroy her own father’s business. Since the powder she found is white and was with a syringe, it is likely cocaine according to the drug identification guide found on police-information.co.uk; the penalties for cocaine possession in the United States can be imprisonment for five to forty years, or if a death or serious injury can be traced to the cocaine, the prison sentence is increased to twenty years to life and/or a fine of up to two million dollars (“Cocaine Legalities”).
On the other hand, she could potentially save Mr. Brown’s life by turning him in so, in addition to probable prison time, he can get clean of all drug use with rehab. Apply Ethical Theories & Approaches
Now that Andrea knows what type of ethical problem she is dealing with, she needs to use ethical theories or approaches to analyze her problem. One ethical theory is utilitarianism which states that an act is right if it helps to bring about the best balance of benefits over burdens (Purtilo and Doherty 92).
The benefits of reporting Mr. Brown’s possession of drugs to Andrea’s supervisor and to the police include potentially saving Mr. Brown’s life, he will get better, and if he is allowed to return to work after his time served in prison, his work life (which Andrea’s father described as in trouble because his failing health was interfering with his earnings) would be greatly improved.
The burdens of reporting him, however, include possible prison time for Mr. Brown and/or a fine, he could lose his job and in effect possibly endanger Andrea’s father’s career, and since Andrea and Mr. Brown know each other personally, Mr. Brown could try and get back at her for reporting him. Although it seems like the burdens are equal to or even more than the benefits, the fact that a possible benefit is to save Mr. Brown’s life makes the benefits outweigh the burdens by far. The other theory that can be applied to help solve the ethical problem is deontology. This theory says that you are acting rightly when you act according to your duties and rights (Purtilo and Doherty 89).
The Essay on Health Care Reform Project, Part I
A current health care economic issue in the United States is the prescription drugs many patients must obtain because of the doctor’s orders to help with their health condition. In the United States, there are many individuals needing to consume their prescription drugs on daily basis. Although, these prescriptions are prescribed by their doctors many insurance companies did not have coverage for ...
Andrea’s duty as a health care professional is to act in the best interest of the patient’s health which would be to report his drug use so that he can be helped to stop using.
All ethical principles, which include nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, veracity, justice, and paternalism, can be applied to this situation. Nonmaleficence is to do no harm (Purtilo and Doherty 83).
It could be thought that if Andrea reports Mr. Brown she will be harming him by getting him into trouble, but if she does not report him she will do more harm by letting him continue his drug use and possibly kill himself. Beneficence is to bring about good (83).
Reporting Mr. Brown will bring about good by allowing him to get clean, but may bring about some bad also to the effects of prison time or job loss. Autonomy, professional autonomy specifically, points out that a health professional must be free of encumberments to act in his or her best judgment on behalf of his or her patients (87).
Andrea needs to choose based on Mr. Brown’s best interest.
She needs to base her decision based on his health and well-being rather than his possible personal and professional life outcomes since her career choice means that she is trying to help improve people’s health. Veracity means to be bound to honesty (87).
If Andrea acts like she never found the bag, she will technically be lying. It can be assumed that the outpatient clinic has some sort of policy regarding drugs. Since she found the bag, she has to report it. Not to report it would be acting like she did not find it which is a lie. Justice serves to ensure a proper distribution of burdens and benefits when there are competing claims (88).
Andrea needs to allow Mr. Brown a chance to explain and/or defend himself, but if he is buying and using drugs he needs to be punished and helped to get clean.
The Essay on Communication Skills for Health Professionals
Introduction Communication skills are important for health professionals because they deal with different situations and people every day. Furthermore, an example to use the appropriate communication is when the professional has to give bad news of an unfavourable diagnostics. For instance, the dentist to give the diagnostics of oral cancer for their patient, this situation is necessary to have ...
Finally, Paternalism is when a patient’s preferences conflict with the health professional’s judgment (88).
Mr. Brown may know drugs are bad for his health but he chooses to use anyways. This is a situation where the health professional is obviously going to disagree with the patient’s choices and require that he stop using the drugs. According to J. C. Ishrat’s article, “Basic ideas on medical ethics”, dignity is an additional ethical principle that means the patient and the person treating the patient have the right to dignity. Practical Alternatives
Now that Andrea knows what kind of problem she is dealing with and how each theory and principle applies, she must complete step four by exploring all options. This situation only really has a couple of practical alternatives. Andrea could potentially discuss the issue directly with Mr. Brown, but drug use is so addictive and could affect him in many ways she may not understand. He could attack her out of drug induced anger or ignore her plead to stop using. A lot of people using drugs cannot stop on their own, but need help in doing so; help such as intervention or rehab is usually required.
The other alternative would be to act like she never found the bag and slip it back in with his stuff, but that is wrong on even more levels; Andrea would be endangering Mr. Brown by returning the drugs into his possession, and she would be avoiding her role as a health professional as well as her role as a good Samaritan. The final option, which has been discussed earlier, is to report Mr. Brown’s possession of drugs. There are consequences to this option, as stated above, but ethically it is more right than any other route. Complete the Action
The fifth step of the sixth steps to ethical decision making is to complete the action; step six of the process is to evaluate the process and outcome, but it is unknown for this situation. Step five is where Andrea is to turn Mr. Brown in for possessing the drugs (if that is what they are).
This is the best option because it is going to potentially save his life, and Andrea is doing her duty as a medical professional. It may not feel completely right to Andrea since her decision may end Mr. Brown in jail and jobless, but what good would freedom and a job be if he were to die from drug overdose? The six step method to solving ethical problems has proven to be very helpful in the case of Andrea and Mr. Brown.
The Term Paper on Drug Abuse and Treatment Centers in Afghanistan
The issue of narcotic drugs production and consumption is worsening in Afghanistan which threatens the security and hinders the development. Afghanistan as the largest opium-producing country in the world produces 94% of the world’s opiates and thus has 920,000 illicit drug users. Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) and many other major organizations such as International Narcotics and Law ...
Works Cited
“Cocaine Legalities.” TheGoodDrugsGuide.com. 2011. Web. 25 October 2011. “Drug Identification Guide.” Police-Information.co.uk. 2011. Web. 25 October 2011. Gallagher, Ann. “Moral Distress and Moral Courage in Everyday Nursing Practice.” Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 16.2 (2011): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 October 2011. J. C. Ishrat, et al. “Basic ideas on medical ethics.” Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science 9.3 (2010): 131-135. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 October 2011. Purtilo, Ruth B., and Regina F. Doherty. Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders, 2011. Print.
