Question

Provide several examples of legal behavior and ethical behavior in healthcare.

Answer 1

Provide several examples of legal behaviour and ethical behaviour in healthcare.

Legal behaviour:

Informed consent

Documentation- Recording and reporting

Maintaining confidentiality

Medication errors

Use of subject for clinical trials

Neglect by a healthcare worker

Malpractice: lawsuit for injury related to surgery, noncompliant equipment or medical products, omission of care or a deliberate act that caused harm to a patient.

Mandate to buy health insurance

Data breaches related to insurance

False claims

Ethical behaviour

Acting in accordance with socially accepted values. Acting based on the ethics of the healthcare. Ethical dilemmas are situations where a choice has to be made between two options and neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable manner. Nurses may counteract with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, regardless of the setting of practice.

The code of ethics developed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) act as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent standards of nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession. The factors such as culture, religion, upbringing, individual values and beliefs also play an important role in taking ethical decisions along with a code of ethics. The common ethical issues faced by nurses in the workplace include quality

versus quantity of life, pro-choice versus pro-life, freedom versus control, truth-telling versus

deception, distribution of resources, and empirical knowledge versus personal beliefs (Fant,

2012).

Examples:

Maintaining confidentiality of conversations between a physician and a patient (medical condition). Information’s should be released as per the Specific provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.

Nurse aids a patient in deciding between a therapy that will prolong life but may compromise the quality of life.

The right of healthcare providers to protect themselves from communicable diseases

Sexual relationships between medical practitioners and patients or between medical staff

Sexual harassment

Advanced directives

Wishes of terminally ill patients

Do not resuscitate orders

Handling end-of-life issues

Dealing with patients who is not able to make rational decisions on their own.
Disagreement between patients/families and healthcare professionals when making treatment decisions

Subject participation in research

Use of drugs under clinical trial