Adhere to Professional Codes of Ethics

Adhere to Professional Codes of Ethics

What will help them make legal and sound decisions when confronted with an ethical situation or dilemma?

understanding the law, standards of practice, and ethical principles that govern them and their profession

Ethics

rules, standards, and moral principles that govern a person’s behavior; concerned with questions of how individuals in a society should act be defining right and wrong and appropriate conduct to serve the greater good

Similarly, values, or an individual believes refers to what?

one person moral principles or what an individual believes is right or wrong

Values

govern a person’s decisions, with a goal of maintaining one’s integrity or conscience

An individuals values may be influenced by concepts of what?

honesty, fidelity, equality, compassion, responsibility, humility, and respect for life

Personal ethics determines what?

an individual believes about morality and right and wrong and it includes one’s personal values and moral qualities and is influenced by fam, friends, culture, religion, education, etc.

Examples of one’s personal ethics

for a person to believe in the death penalty but support a woman’s right to an abortion

Common ethics/group ethics

a system of principles and rules of conduct accepted by a group based on ethnicity, political affiliation, or cultural identity

Example of common ethics

a person who is religious to believe all abortion and the death penalty are bad and all life should be preserved

Professional ethics

aims to define, clarify, and criticize professional work and its typical values

Professional ethics sets the standards for what?

practicing one’s profession and can be learned only through education or training or on the job

Professional ethics involves what attributes?

commitment, competence, confidence, and contract

Professional ethics is often used to impose rules and standards on employees in an organization or members of a profession; examples of professionalism:

employee handbooks, code of ethics, and the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians

Medical ethics which morals

moral principles, and moral judgement that health care professionals use to determine whether an action should be allowed based on “right and wrong”

Medical ethics uses moral analysis to what?

assess the obligations and responsibilities of health care professionals on various issues and challenges related to health care and medicine

Autonomy

the capacity to think, decide, and act on one’s own free will and initiative. The pt decision-making process must be free of coercion or coaxing. Professionals should help pt come to their own decisions by providing full info

Justice

principle that ethics should be based on is what is consistent and fair to all involved. Pt in similar situations should have access to the same care. Professionals must consider four main areas when evaluating justice: fair distribution of scarce resources, competing needs, rights and obligations, and potential conflicts with established legislation

Definition of Justice

fair distribution of benefit, risk, resources, and cost to ensure equal treatment

Beneficence

general moral principle of doing the “most food” or doing what is best for patients. This must consider the pt pain, their physical and mental suffering, the risk of disability and death, and their quality of life. What is best for the patient may agree or disagree with the providers clinical judgement

Definition of Beneficence

a moral obligation to act in the best interest of others

Nonmaleficence

principle of “do no harm” to the patient or to the fewest number of people in society, It is difficult for providers to always apply successfully the “do no harm” principle because, for example, most treatments involve some degree of risk or adverse effects