Medical Ethics – 2. Professional Value in provision of quality health care services
Read the complete lesson in an organized slide-by-slide format. This topic contains 28 learning sections from the source presentation.
LESSON CONTENTS — 28 SECTIONS
Learning objectives
- Define the term values and integrity
- Explain the link between values and a profession
- Describe professional values during provision of quality health care services
- Observe professional values when providing care to patients(compassion,respect,commitment,integrity and ethical practice, excellency, justice)
Definition of Values
Values can be defined as relatively stable convictions about what is good or desirable.
The difference from ethics here is clearly that one can have values that are not ethical or that have nothing to do with ethics.
Some values examples:
Some values examples
Respect
Transparency
Fairness
Justice
Values and Profession
Values of a profession will be reflected through the behaviour of their professional members, who have to practice in a specific manner accepted by ethical code of practice, ethical principles and standards of the profession
Professional values include:
Professional values include
Punctuality
Commitment
Respect
Fairness and equality
Quality of services
Creativity and innovativeness
For any profession to function optimally, good relations and interactions between stakeholders are required.
In order to ensure such good relations and interactions occur, members of the profession need to commit themselves to specific ethical codes of practice and professional ethics
Integrity
Definion: It refers specifically to human character
Is a more restricted concept than ethics
A person is regarded as someone with integrity when she/he consistently adheres to a set of ethical standards
Integrity, is often associated with concepts like Fairness, Consistency, Uprightness, Wholeness
These characteristics make a person of integrity, reliable and trustworthy.
The person with integrity will always adhere to her or his values.
Slide 10
People with good moral characters can turn to unethical behaviour if they find themselves in organizations where unethical conduct is the norm.
People can be restrained from unethical behaviour if find themselves in organizations that do not tolerate unethical behaviour, but reward ethical behaviour.
Ethical behaviour should not only be addressed on the individual level, but also on the system or organizational level.
Characteristics of Quality Health Services
Every person regardless of age or condition is afforded access to quality health care.
The service is to be timely, reliable and adequate.
Services to be provided to all in need guaranteeing equal access to medical services.
Service that allow exercise of moral and religious freedom when receiving health care.
Services where medical personal do not harm, do positive good, and respect the autonomy of persons, and adhere to principles of justice.
Services that create a bond of trust between patients and health care providers which is built on shared decision-making
Slide 12
Services where patients or their relatives are provided with complete information in order to participate fully in their own care.
Services that recognize the quality and availability of health care services for women affect the health and wellbeing of their children and families so that limitations to these services have a profound long-term effect on the public’s health.
Services where medical professionals exercise their professional judgment in the best interests of their patients; and recognizing the professional obligation of medical providers to support access to medical care for all people in the interest of the public good.
Slide 13
Services which respect and protect the dignity and autonomy of each person regardless of the person’s health issues, religious views or social status.
Respecting every person’s dignity means that each person should enjoy the right to health, to health care, to direct access to health care, and to the continuation of that care, regardless of the ownership of the institution from which they seek care.
Services where patient expects and has the right to expect the health care professional to employ the highest standard of care and best medical practices.
Services that respect transplantation of organs from living donors is permissible when such a donation will not sacrifice or seriously impair any essential bodily function of the donor.
Values and Provision of Quality Health Services
Good therapeutic relationship
The term ‘therapeutic relationship’ includes all professional interactions between care providers, individually or as a team, and recipients of care.
A good therapeutic relationship is founded on mutual trust and respect between providers and recipients of care
Slide 15
The needs, values and preferences of the person receiving care should be the primary consideration in the provision of quality health care
Sensitivity to and understanding of the personal needs and preferences of persons receiving care, their family members and significant others is the cornerstone of a good therapeutic relationship
Open communication, within the confines of privacy and confidentiality, is essential.
All those involved in decision-making should be encouraged to express their points of view, and these views should be respectfully considered.
Health Care providers should ensure that they understand the needs, values and preferences of the person receiving care.
Slide 17
Health care providers to avoid misunderstanding or confusion, they should make their communications direct, clear and consistent.
They should verify that, the person receiving care understands the information being conveyed, silence should not be assumed to indicate agreement.
The person receiving care should be provided with the necessary support, time and opportunity to participate fully in discussions regarding care.
The competent person must be involved in decisions regarding his or her care.
The primary goal of care is to provide benefit to the person receiving care.
The competent person has the right to determine what constitutes benefit in the given situation, whether with respect to physical psychological, spiritual, social or other considerations.
Slide 19
Informed decision-making requires that the person receiving care or a relative be given all information and support necessary for assessing the available options for care, including the potential benefits and risks of the proposed course of action and of the alternatives, including palliative care.
The competent person has the right to refuse, or withdraw consent to any care or treatment, including life-saving or life-sustaining treatment
Slide 20
The competent person has the right to refuse, or withdraw consent to any care or treatment, including life-saving or life-sustaining treatment.
Although parents or guardians are normally the primary decision makers for their minor children, children should be involved in the decision-making process to the extent that their capacity allows, in accordance to the existing regulations and policies.
These preferences may be found in an advance directive or may have been communicated orally.
- When the person receiving care is incompetent, that is, lacking in adequate decision making capacity with respect to care and treatment, every effort must be made to ensure that health care decisions are consistent with his or her known preferences.
- These preferences may be found in an advance directive or may have been communicated orally.
- In situations where decision making concerning care and medical treatment for incompetent persons is specifically addressed in law, the requirements of that legislation should be met.
Person’s diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options.
When an incompetent person’s preferences are not known and there is no family member to represent the person, decisions must be based on an attempt to ascertain the person’s best interests, taking into account:
Person’s diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options.
Person’s known needs and values.
Information received from those who are significant in the person’s life and who could help in determining his or her best interests.
Aspects of the person’s culture, religion or spirituality that could influence care treatment decisions.
Slide 23
When conflicts arise despite efforts to prevent them, they should be resolved as informally as possible, moving to more formal procedures only when informal measures have been unsuccessful.
In cases of disagreement or conflict, the opinions of all those directly involved should be given respectful consideration
Slide 24
Disagreements among health care providers about the goals of care and treatment or the means of achieving those goals should be clarified and resolved by the members of the health care team so as not to compromise their relationship with the person receiving care.
Disagreements between health care providers and administrators with regard to the allocation of resources should be resolved within the facility or agency and not be debated in the presence of the person receiving care
Slide 25
Health care authorities and health facilities should develop conflict resolution policies for dealing with such issues and monitor their use.
When the needs, values and preferences of the person receiving care cannot be met, he or she should be clearly and frankly informed of the reasons for this, including any factors related to resource limitations
Slide 26
Health care providers should not be expected or required to participate in procedures that are contrary to their professional judgement or personal moral values or that are contrary to the values or mission of their health facility.
Health care providers should declare in advance their inability to participate in procedures that are contrary to their professional or moral values.
Health care providers should not be subject to discrimination or reprisal for acting on their beliefs.
The exercise of this provision should never put the person receiving care at risk of harm or abandonment.
Health care providers have a responsibility to advocate together with those for whom they are caring in order that these persons will have access to appropriate treatment.
Evaluation
What are values?
What is integrity?
What are the values that a health profession needs to observe?
List characteristics of quality services
Get These Notes as a Well-Formatted PDF
Want a clean PDF copy for easier revision, printing, or offline reading? Request the notes directly through WhatsApp.
