Question

Create a possible ethical dilemma relating to your chosen field. For example: You are a Medical Assistant and your supervising physician consistently asks you to perform procedures that you are not trained for. Or, you are a Medical Biller and your supervisor has asked you to overbill certain procedures because the clinic that you work for is in financial trouble. Using the 7 Step Decision Making Model, apply the facts of your dilemma.

Answer 1

Seven steps of ethical decision making are:

1. Don't try to reach conclusions without knowing the facts.
2. Defining the ethical issues and goals.
3. Identifying the affected people.
4. Identifying the action’s consequences.
5. Identifying the significant principles, justice, and rights issues.
6. Considering one's own character and integrity.
7. Think about all potential actions, and choose and modify if needed.

A medical assistant is not trained to perform all procedures, instead they receive training to do only certain procedures that are mostly limited to specialty clinics. When a supervising physician consistently asks a nursing assistant to perform procedures, which are not meant to be done by the nursing assistant or he is forced to do a procedure that needs the expertise of a well-trained and experienced professional, he is in an ethical dilemma of to do or not to do. Facts should be gathered about this ethical issue and goals should be determined. The affected people including the patient is identified at this stage. Then the consequences of the action are identified. If he chooses not to do the procedure, he will be out of the physician's favorable list and he will have to face the management's decision of termination. If he chooses to obey the supervising physician and do a procedure for which he has not been trained, it will be against his moral conscience. He will be in an ethical dilemma of to do or not to do. The patient's rights are violated if he obeys the physician. Based on all these factors and his character and integrity, he decides in favor of not obeying the physician.