Question

Choose one of the following to discuss in your original post:

1. After studying all the material and references in this module, reading other sources, and considering your professional public health experience, post your description of and reaction to these general principles. Are they clear? Do you think that most public health professionals would find them useful on a daily basis? Would you? Is that what they are for? Do any of the principles seem either particularly useful or particularly useless? Explain.

2. After reading the Principles of Ethical Practice of Public Health, do you think it is useful for public health to have its own set of principles? Are discipline-specific principles really necessary? Why or why not?

Read the articles: Public Health Leadership Society. (2002). Principles of the ethical practice of public health. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/about/ethics/pdf/lunch_and_learn/Principles%20of%20the%20Ethical%20Practice%20of%20Public%20Health.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.[11 pages] Thomas, J. (2004). Skills for the ethical practice of public health. Retrieved from https://nnphi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ph-code-of-ethics-skills-and-competencies-booklet.original.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [10 pages] Weed, D. L., & McKeown, R. E. (2003, January). Science, ethics, and professional public health practice. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57(1), 4-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.57.1.4 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [4 pages. A link to the PDF is available on the web page.]

Answer 1

All who work in public health share the common goal of working towards prevention of  disease and promotion of health. this universal goal is equally claimed by government agencies, research Centers, community-based and non-profit organizations, and health care institutions. However, this universal appeal to the purpose of health care  also means that the principles governing their work should be at least similar or common across the different sectors since public health professionals often have to face difficult ethical decisions. A unanimously chosen professional standard or ethical guideline can thus serve as practical guide of communication between these different professionals associated with public health.

Moreover, given that public health is also a thriving professional training programme, educating novice students of public health would mean preparing them to handle them with the complexities of the profession and therefore a programme specific code of ethical principles can help to make them sensitised to ethics and ethical challenges such as in the case of conflict between protecting their client’s right to privacy vs. sharing client’s personal information with third party agencies. By and large, there are seven mid-level principles:

non-maleficence or protecting their patients from any malpractice,

beneficence or a genuine interest and care of the patient and protecting them from any harm

health maximisation or guiding the patient to select the best treatment programme which would ensure their health.

efficiency or the moral duty to use scarce health resources efficiently in order to produce more health benefit for greater numbers of people

respect for autonomy or respecting the patient’s right to choose a particular treatment option or terminate a treatment procedure

justice or the duty to moderate their professional practice towards ensuring a fair distribution of health outcomes in societies regardless of the oatient’s socioeconomic background, race, religion, nationality, etc.

proportionality which involves weighing and balancing individual freedom against wider social outcomes such that the negative effects do not outweigh the positive benefits.

these principles have been evolved to carefully highlight that Public health professionals are often caught in a conflict over balancing between the rights and duties of individuals, communities, populations and governments. Even then, public health professionals often receive little training on how to well-informed decisions based on ethical reasons and for this reason a specific set of ethical principles serves as a helpful guide in public health practice.