Question

discuss the importance of ethics in health care policy.

Answer 1

Health policy refers to decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society. It set the foundation for the delivery of safe and cost effective quality care. Health policy should be evidence based,effective ,proportionate and ethical .

Ethics refer to moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

Ethics form the base ground of values which differ from one culture to another. The ethical principle of confidentiality confirms that patient can trust his health care provider not to disclose any information that the patient may have given in order to get cured.

Importance

1. to balance respect for individual freedom and liberty with the responsibility of governments to provide their citizens with some degree of protection in relation to health. For example ensuring that certain basic services, such as clean air and water

2. In traditional bioethics, much emphasis is placed on the freedom of the individual. there should not be minor infringements of a person’s freedom.

3. In conducting biomedical research on human subjects to protect participants from health hazards also ethical guidelines needed.

4. To help resolve disputes between family, patients, physicians, or other parties. Often, the parties involved are working  on emotion, which makes it difficult to come to a logical and fair decision. Ethics helps  a logical dimension to help decisions.

5. To maintain a clear conscience. All health care personnel want to be sure they have done the right thing.

6. To not make yourself look uninformed. Physicians or nurses sometimes stumble onto poor decisions because they did not understand their role, fail to identify an ethical challenge, or hadn't thought the situation through to its logical conclusion.

7. To maintain the respect of your patients. Ethical missteps can destroy the bond between health care provider  and patient. Trust is important in health care delivery .

8. To maintain respectful relationships with other colleagues . Your colleagues often have very definite opinions about what is ethical, often upholds various codes of ethics of the profession or learned from mentors. Those codes and ethics role-modeling are created by people who practice some form of ethical decision-making.

9. To maintain some efficiency. Although ethical decision-making often requires extra time, it also can save time by anticipating disagreements that can slow down the care process. If you aren't ethical, patients or other caregivers who are upset with your decisions can seriously impede your work.

10. To reduce burnout. One cause of burnout is incongruence between health professional personal values and those of their organization. Health care providers who can describe their ethical concerns and use negotiating skills may be able to change the organizational policies that produce burnout.

11. To follow professional codes of conduct and obligations ethics is must. For performances appraisal this can be taken into consideration .

Health organizations and policy-makers have to make decisions about how to protect and improve population health and reduce health inequalities in acceptable and desirable ways. In making such decisions they should apply principles that reflect their purpose and values—a set of ethical principles.

Health care ethics or medical ethics  is the application of the core principles of bioethics (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice) to medical and health care decisions. It is a lens through which to view complex issues and make recommendations about  a course of action. The ethical principles are

• Autonomy: Patients basically have the right to determine their own healthcare.

• Justice: Distributing the benefits and burdens of care across society.

• Beneficence: Doing good for the patient.

• Nonmalfeasance: Making sure you are not harming the patient.