Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
In the health care sector, professionals have to adhere to a given set of codes of ethics when discharging their duties. In healthcare, professionals include nurses, physicians, and allied health professionals. The different professionals have a distinct code of ethics that are observed. In this essay we are going to compare and contrast codes of ethics of a nurse and an emergency physician. Also, the essay will propose how to handle overwhelming responsibilities at times of crisis without breaking the codes of ethics.
A nurse should uphold the following codes of ethics whenever he/she is employed to handle patients. Nurses should serve patients without considering their economic status, type of diseases patients suffer from, or personal influence of a patient. Human dignity must be respected and used as the guiding principle in offering treatment.
Secondly, it is fundamental that nurses adhere to making patients’ information a secret affair. A nurse is expected to take appropriate measures based on his/her own medical action concerning a patient’s condition while at the same time withhold service competence. It is also expected that nurses contribute to professional improvement of nursing services. Nurses should join hands with other stakeholders in fulfilling public health expectations.
On the other hand, an emergency physician apart from the general healthcare ethics has to respond promptly to emergency healthcare needs. An emergency physician has to make choice for a patient who may be incapacitated to make any meaningful decision. Otherwise, the ethics observed by an emergency physician remain the same as those of a nurse. An example to this effect is that both are required to uphold professionalism in curbing healthcare issues. In addition, both take actions that promote the well being of the public at community and national levels. Both nurses and emergency physicians take part in professional development of their fields of services in a bid to make healthcare services superior.
An example where the code of ethics in medical practice has been violated is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The African Americans were involved in a study to discover the effects of untreated syphilis without their consent. All the health practitioners kept the secret from the victims till they died. The victims were purely African Americans and this shows they were racially abused as a minority group in America. This case represents one of the most talked about unethical issues in healthcare sector, (Blumenthal and DiClemente, 2004).
The Haiti Quake disaster is another instance that can be used to monitor how nurses and emergency physicians upheld their ethical codes. The number of victims overwhelmed healthcare provision due to limited facilities and medical supplies. “Since the disaster cut power, electricity and other utilities, people are without clean drinking water and at greater risk of malnutrition and disease,” [Boston (WBZ), 2010].
In the Haiti case, both nurses and emergency physicians responded to the emergency call but they could not fully discharge their duties because of lack of adequate facilities. Ethical ethics stipulate that professionalism be withheld at all costs but this could not be applied in Haiti. The country had limited health facilities prior to the quake. There is therefore nothing nurses and emergency physicians could do to rescue the victims; though it was their responsibility. However, the Tuskegee case was a gross violation of professional healthcare code of ethics that can be squarely blamed on nurses and doctors who were involved in the study. It is in order that healthcare practitioners avoid by partisanship, racial discrimination, and involve opinion of patients when carrying out health researches.
Reference List
Blumenthal, D.S. & DiClemente, R.J. (2004). Community-based health research: issues and methods. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Boston (WBZ), (2004). Haiti quake victims face threat of diseases. Web.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.