Question

A dental assistant is working with a dentist in the examination of a new patient. The patient has a severely abscessed tooth and will require extensive root canal work. As the assistant prepares for the invasive procedure, the patient mentions that his partner has recently died of AIDS and that he, too, has AIDS. The assistant freezes. He is afraid of getting infected with the AIDS virus.

Discuss the potential role of an ethics committee and a quality assurance program in this case.

Describe which type of ethics you would subscribe to as it relates to this case and why.

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Answer 1

Potential role of ethics committee:

• The chief role of ethics committee is to make sure that every patient or person gets justice
• They will make sure that the patient, gets treated no matter what and if not, the doctor and the assistant will be sued in th court of law.
• In this case, as it is the right of AIDS patient to get necessary treatment, they will make sure of it and if the doctor or assistant refuses, strict actions will be taken against them

Potential role of Quality Assurance Program:

• Their role is to ensure the quality of the equipments, treatment, qualification and experience of medical personell, and make sure the patient recieves what's best for him.
• It also has the duty to ensure safe working condition for all workers there and make sure they are safe from all dangers related.
• The quality Assurance program thus, will overlooknthis case so as to ensure that the AIDS patient gets adequate care and there are quality equipments for his best treatment
• The program will also make sure of the qualification of the doctor inorder to treat him and allows only if he is qualified enough
• The program will also ensure that all the personnels associated with this particular case if taking all measures and are safe from contracting the virus.

Type of ethics related to this case would be Beneficence and Non-maleficence.

The reason is that this ethics deals with the benefits for the patient and that the orocproce be provided with the intent of doing good for the patient involved

therefore, when an AIDS patient comes, he should be served with what is best for him. He should not be sent back due to the fact that he has AIDS, it is against the ethics.

And proper procedures should be done with extra precautions.So this makes the ethics come under "non-maleficence" . It is because, it should be made clear that neither him nor anyone else including the assistant is not in any way of danger or harm and that everyone is safe. Ethics related to non-maleficence is based on this ideology that no one is harmed due to any procedure.