1. Objectives:
To Understand:
• The dynamics between ethics and
the law.
• How to implement contemporary
ethical principles by examining the
difference between ideas(duties).
• Actions (consequences) as they
pertain to the principles and
principles of ethics.
• The common terms and principles
of modern bioethics. 1
2. Objectives Continued
• Why ethics may differ among
different cultures and why this
knowledge is important.
• Why bioethics needs to be
integrated through conscious
design in order for the health care
provider to deliver ethical care.
• The importance of ethics in modern
medicine in today’s culturally
diverse health care environment.
2
To Understand:
3. Objectives Continued
• The case study method of
examining everyday bioethical
problems to enhance the
student’s understanding and
implementation of contemporary
bioethic principles and principles.
• How to utilize ethical principles as
guidelines for decision making
when caring for clients.
3
To Understand:
4. Objectives Continued
• How to recognize and utilize
a decision making model
approach to solving ethical
dilemmas.
• How to identify the ethical
duties and actions of the
health care professional
when obtaining an informed
consent from a client/family.
4
To Understand:
5. Objectives Continued
• How to explore positive
communication techniques
which can be used in obtaining
informed consent (feature
benefit check)!
• How to recognize the health
care providers ethical
responsibilities in safe
guarding the contents of
medical records.
5
To Understand:
6. Objectives Continued
• Why ethics may differ among
different cultures and why this
knowledge is important.
• Why bioethics needs to be
integrated through conscious
design in order for the health care
provider to deliver ethical care.
• The importance of ethics in modern
medicine in today’s culturally
diverse health care environment.
6
To Understand:
7. Ethics and Morality
• Ethics is a set of moral
principles and a code for
behavior that govern an
individual’s actions with other
individuals and within society.
• Morality is what people believe
to be right and good, while
ethics is a critical reflection
about morality.
7
8. Law
• Laws are brought about by
tension, agitation and conflict by
dramatic situations.
• Laws are societal rules or
regulations that are obligatory to
observe.
8
9. Law Continued
• Laws protect the welfare and
safety of society, resolve
conflicts, and are constantly
evolving.
• Laws have governed the practice
of medicine for over one hundred
of years.
9
10. Bioethics
• Bioethics refers to the moral issues
and problems that have arisen as a
result of modern medicine and
medical research.
• Issues in bioethics are usually life-
and-death issues!
• Ethical and bioethical principles can
be personal, organizational,
institutional or worldwide.
10
11. Comparing Law and Ethics
• Law, ethics, and bioethics are
different but related concepts.
• Laws are mandatory to which all
citizens must adhere or risk civil
or criminal liability.
• Ethics relate to morals and help
us organize complex
information and competing
values and interests to
formulate consistent and
coherent decisions.
11
12. 12
Value conflicts, no clear
consensus as to the “right”
thing to do. A conflict
between moral obligations
that are difficult to reconcile
and require moral reasoning.
Ethical Dilemma:
14. Ethical Issues in
Modern Healthcare
In modern healthcare and research, value
conflicts arise where often there appears to
be no clear consensus as to the “Right
thing to do.” These conflicts present
problems requiring moral decisions,
and necessitates a choice between
two or more alternatives.
Examples:
• Should a parent have a right to refuse
immunizations for his or her child?
• Does public safety supersede an individual’s
right?
14
15. Ethical Questions, Cont.
• Should children with serious birth defects
be kept alive?
• Should a woman be allowed an abortion
for any reason?
• Should terrorists be tortured to gain
information possibly saving hundreds of
lives?
• Should health care workers be required to
receive small pox vaccination?
• Who should get the finite number of
organs for transplantation?
15
16. Ethical Theories:
Ideas and Actions
• Deontology (duty)
• Consequentialism (actions)
• Virtue Ethics/Intuition (morals and
values)
Beliefs
• Rights Ethics (individuality and
the American culture)
16
17. Ethical Theories
• Deontology /Nonconsequentialism:
Derived from the Greek word, Deon,
meaning duty. Considers that some
acts are right or wrong independent
of their consequences. Looks to
one’s obligation to determine what
is ethical and answers the question:
What should I do and why should I
do it?
17
18. An Individual’s Ideas and Actions
Deontology: A duty
Example: Zelda, a
practitioner, believes she has
a duty to give cardiac clients
detailed information on the
pathology involved in their
condition even though the
client has indicated that they
are not ready or may be
terrified to hear the
information causing the client
distress.
18
19. Ethical Theories Continued
• Consequentialism: Also called
Teleological, Greek word, Telos,
meaning end or consequence. Actions
are determined and justified by the
consequence of the act.
Consequentialists consider all the
consequences of what they are about
to do prior to deciding a right action.
This also answers the question: What
should I do and why should I do it?
19
20. An Individual’s Ideas and Actions
Consequentialism: Action
Example: Had Zelda respected the
wishes of her clients, she would
have given them only the
information which would have been
a benefit to them and not caused
them undue stress. She would
have been motivated by her desire
to do good (beneficence), rather
than her sense of duty. This is a
Deontological betrayal.
20
21. Ethical Theories Continued
• Utilitarian Ethics: Considers the
greatest good for the largest number
of people. Also answers the
question: What should I do and why
should I do it?
• Intuitionism: Resolves ethical
dilemmas by appealing to one’s
intuition, a moral faculty of a person
which directly knows what is right or
wrong. (A gut feeling of knowing
what is right).
21
22. Ethical Theories Continued
• Rights: This popular American
theory resolves ethical
dilemmas by first determining
what rights or moral claims are
involved and take precedence,
(consider the abortion debate-
personal – mom vs.
fetus/child, societal- women’s
choice vs. murder.
22
23. Ethical Theories Continued
• Virtue Ethics: Contrary to
other ethical theories, virtue
ethics tells us what kind of
person one ought to be, rather
than what they do. The focus
is on the character (goodness)
of the person.
23
24. Two questions when faced
with a dilemma:
• Behavior: What should I do?
• Motivation: Why should I do it?
24
25. The Identity Argument
• Premise 1: What is understood to be
morally right depends (at least in part) on
one’s identity as a moral person.
• Premise 2: Ones’ race ethnicity and
culture is central to one’s identity as a
moral person.
• Conclusion: Thus, what is understood to
be morally right by an individual depends
(at least in part) on that person’s race,
ethnicity, and culture.
25
26. Cultural Diversity and
Ethics
• Increased recognition,interest
and respect for diverse societal
values. Why?
• Fundamental question: What
place, if any, do race, ethnicity,
and culture have in moral
theory?
26
Why Now?
27. What exactly do we
mean by race, ethnicity
and culture?
– Race –Genetically there is only one race,
which is the human race. Society makes
judgments about the varieties of biological
characteristics. Eventually, biological
characteristics are seen as socially
constructed which often leads to
stereotyping. 27
28. What exactly do we
mean by race, ethnicity
and culture?
– Ethnicity - An individual’s
identification with a particular cultural
group to which they are biologically
related.
28
29. What exactly do we
mean by race, ethnicity
and culture?
– Culture - A set of beliefs, values and
traditions that are socially transmitted
from one generation to another. It
defines a group’s norm’s or
community’s identity.
29
30. Cultural Assimilation
• A process by which persons of
different backgrounds adopt
Another group’s main values,
traditions and mores.
• Cultural Assimilation:
– Often occurs in different stages.
– It may never be complete due to the
group’s efforts in maintaining their
identity.
– May occur in degrees by choice.
30
31. Cultural Differences
• Value the family over the
individual.
• Engage and expect the
family’s support in their self-
care.
• Value the institution’s that are
sensitive to their cultural
needs.
31
MAY INCLUDE:
32. Cultural Differences
– Liberal visiting hours and an un-
limited number of visitors (Family
based care).
– Incorporation of religious beliefs
and cultural traditions in tandem
with Western medicine.
32
33. Cultural Differences
• Can effect the quality of client care
• Can have a negative effect on the
family
• Should be evaluated carefully to
improve healthcare outcomes and
prevent:
– Misunderstandings
– Stereotyping
– Barriers
– Conflict
33
34. Stereotypes:
Are oversimplifications to
conceptions or images of what a
particular group or person should
look like, or how they should act by
disregarding each person’s
uniqueness.
– Represent the end-point of one’s
understanding (all members of a
particular group fit the same pattern or
mold).
– Do not encourage further exploration of
the individual or assimilation into the
majority group.
34
35. Generalizations
• Generalizations – Statements that
represent common trends in a group
with the understanding that further
information needs to be gathered to
verify its application to a particular
person.
– Represent a starting point and have been
used by anthropologists whenever they see
broad patterns of similarities among groups
of people.
– May lead to inaccuracies in their application
to a specific client
35
36. Generalizations
• Can assist the health care
professional to introduce open-
ended guiding questions. This may
help the healthcare professional to
identify the individual’s values and
cultural needs. This may
profoundly improve healthcare
outcomes.
36
37. Diversity & Bioethics
Contemporary bioethical
principles are all derived,
directly or indirectly from the
principle of autonomy.
Within the world, no two
people are exactly alike.
Therefore, their values,
motivations, moral beliefs,
and moral characters may
differ much more than their
physical appearances.
37
38. Organizational Ideas and
Actions
• Cultural Relativism: “Everyone
does it.”
• Cheating
• Stealing office supplies
• Conducting personal
business at work
38
39. Organizational Ideas and
Actions
Although “everyone does it”, it
still comes down to an
individual’s decision about
how one is going to act using
or not using ethical
principles.
39
40. What Are Ethical Principles, and
How Do They Help With
Decision Making?
40
41. Ethical Principles
Conflict is inevitable. Ethical
principles provide the
framework/ tools which may
facilitate individuals and society
to resolve conflict in a fair, just
and moral manner.
41
43. Autonomy
• The right to participate in and
decide on a course of action
without undue influence.
• Self-Determination: which is
the freedom to act
independently. Individual
actions are directed toward
goals that are exclusively
one’s own.
43
46. Beneficence/Nonmaleficenc
• The principle and obligation of
doing good and avoiding harm.
• This principle counsels a provider
to relate to clients in a way that will
always be in the best interest of the
client, rather than the provider.
46
47. Fidelity
• Strict observance of promises or
duties.
• This principle, as well as other
principles, should be honored by
both provider and client.
47
48. Justice
• The principle that deals with fairness,
equity and equality and provides for an
individual to claim that to which they are
entitled.
– Comparative Justice: Making a decision based
on criteria and outcomes. ie: How to determine
who qualifies for one available kidney. 55 year
old male with three children versus a 13 old girl.
– Noncomparative Justice: ie: a method of
distributing needed kidneys using a lottery
system.
48
50. Respect for the Individual
• In our pluralistic society individuals
often misunderstand each other.
• Even when they do understand each
other, it is possible for them to
disagree.
• The Healthcare arena, in common
with every other segment of society
has found it necessary to find ways to
create understanding and agreement.50
51. How to Create Understanding
and Agreement?
• Common ground must be created or
found.
• A function of Ethics, in our society, is
to make agreement possible.
• As healthcare professionals and
patients meet, they meet as strangers
from diverse backgrounds therefore,
their ways of looking at and
approaching the world are usually
quite different.
51
52. Creating Harmony is Difficult
In The Healthcare
Arena.
• Power
• Self esteem
• Communication
• Personality/Attitude
• Education Level
• Socioeconomic Class
• Culture (which constitutes the most
profound difference).
• Values
52
53. Changing Healthcare
Environment
• Managed Care
• Increased Healthcare Costs
• Technology
• Baby Boomers
• Young and Old Life Spans
• Decrease in Healthy Lifestyles
• Lack of Healthcare Access/Insurance
• Feelings of Entitlements for
Healthcare at a minimal personal co
53
54. External Forces
• Political Influences/Forces
– Immigration/Migration of the elderly
– Medicare/Prescription drugs – life
style driven
– Decrease in extended families
– Decrease in resources
• Work force
• Family Caretakers
• Support/Finances Services in the Community
• Socio-economic Disparities –
healthcare right or privilege?
54
55. How May Harmony Be Achieved?
• Through ethical
principles/behaviors, because
they:
– Provide a unique opportunity for
personal fulfillment and self respect.
– Serve to make it possible for
professionals to deal with each other
on a human level with respect
across all disciplines. 55
56. Ethical Principles/Behaviors
Continued:
– Serve to make it possible for
professionals and clients to deal with
each other on a human level with
respect across all cultures and
communities.
– Make it possible for strangers to
achieve understanding (if agreement
is not reached, toleration may be
achieved).
56
57. Ethical Principles/Behaviors
Continued:
– May make it possible for professional and
clients to agree on and respect each others
rights.
– May make it possible for this agreement to
carry over into other aspects of life outside
the healthcare setting where the idea of
Ethics may be first introduced to the
professional.
– May make it possible for provider and patient
to interact on the basis of shared goals.
57
58. How Ethical Principles and Law
Interface
• Patient Self Determination Act of
1990 (PSDA)
• Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA)
(Implementation April 2003)
58
59. HIPAA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
of 1996 (Implementation April 2003)
• Ensures privacy and confidentiality of medical
records (a legal document that identifies the patient,
diagnoses, and justification for treatment).
• Healthcare providers are responsible for hiring, and
educating personnel to be knowledgeable of HIPAA
rules and regulations governing privacy and security of
medical records.
59
60. HIPAA - Continued
• Holds all healthcare providers accountable for
non-consented release of medical
information.
• Healthcare providers are responsible for
hiring and educating personnel to be
knowledgeable about HIPAA rules
and regulations governing privacy and
security of medical records.
60
61. Research Driven
Ethical Issues
With the advent and benefits of
modern research, moral conflict
is inevitable now and in the
future.
• Stem Cell Research
• Research Cloning
• Genome Project Results
• Fertility Research
61
62. Ethical Questions for
Discussion
• Should children with serious birth
defects be kept alive?
• Should a woman on Medicaid be
allowed an abortion for any reason?
• Should organs for transplantation be
able to be purchased?
62
63. Ethical Questions for
Discussion
• Should people suffering from
a genetic disease, where future misery
is predicted, be allowed to have children?
• Should individuals be allowed to use
scarce healthcare resources when death
is inevitable?
63
64. An Example of A
Decision Making Model
(ADPIE)
• Assessment
– Gather the facts/collect
information from a variety of
sources
• Diagnosis
– Identify the problem or issue
64
65. • Plan
– Explore alternatives and/options.
– Identify the consequences of
actions/non-actions.
– Analyze the values and
professional issues at stake.
– Select the course of
action/make a decision.
– Justify the decision.
65
66. ADPIE Continued
• Implementation
– Carry out the plan.
• Evaluation
– Determine how this ethical
problem could possibly have
been prevented.
– Lessons learned.
– Assessment of outcomes.
66
68. Ethical Communication
• How to explore positive
communication techniques which
can be used in obtaining consent
for treatments (Feature Benefit
Check)!
68
69. Ethics Committees
• Decision making in health care often
involves more than just medical
facts of the case
• Ethical principles and values will be
the determining factor in which
course of action to take.
• Many health care facilities have
established Ethics committees.
69
70. Ethics Committees
• Found in most health care facility’s
• Usually twelve to fifteen members
• Multidisciplinary members
– A representative from the Board of Trustees
– The facility administrator
– The facility’s director of Nursing
– A staff nurse
– A physician
– An area clergy
– A Social Worker
– An Attorney
– An Ethic ist (Usually a philosophy or theology
professor)
– Lay persons from the community
70
71. Functions of the Committee
• Education
– To committee members themselves
– Continuing education and inservice to
facility’s staff
– To the community
71
72. Functions continued
• Development and review of laws,
standards of care, institutional
policies and guidelines
– About withdrawing and withholding
nutrition and hydration
– Do Not Resuscitate
– Utilization of facility’s/communities
resources
72
73. Functions continued
• Case Consultation with:
– Family members
– Patients
– Health care providers
– Staff
– And their own clergy
73
74. Case Consultation May:
– Provides information about ethical
principles relevant to the case under
discussion
– Help clarify what options are open
– Provide information about relevant
policies of the facility
– Make a recommendation that is advisory
in nature
74
75. Changing Scope of Ethics Committees
• Committees are expanding their
scope of their activity to include
organizational ethics, considering
questions regarding:
– Finances
– Administration
– Organization
– Human Resource
75
76. Expanding Scope
In the future, ethics consults may provide for
the management of a health care facility just
as ethics consults are now available to
patients, family members, and staff for
particular medical treatment decisions.
76
Notas do Editor
Different cultures have different moral codes. Thus, there are no universal truths in ethics because it is difficult to say that customs are either correct or incorrect.
Today federal and state governments have constitutional authority to create and enforce laws.
Some examples of laws that protect society are DUI laws, safety belts, child car seats and bicycle helmets.
Laws that have governed the practice of medicine are exemplified in obtaining and maintaining licensure.
Also, the Hippocratic oath is an example of the intersection of ethics and the law.
Medicine and technology are rapidly changing and offer choices to individuals. Although challenging and even exciting, the choices can be difficult for each of us.
For example should medications known to be effective, be withheld from homeless or incompetent people because they don’t have the means to store or manage the medication properly?
There are penalties for failing to follow the law. This includes professional practice acts.
Although there are no penalties for not following the principles of ethics, there are consequences to self, organizations and the community at-large.
Update examples for this slide as current issues arise.
Select questions of your choice for class discussion.
There are certain ethical theories that are employed that serve as a framework to respond to a myriad of ethical questions which we will explore in the next several slides.
The problem with employing Utilitarian theories is determining who decides the definition of “greatest” and “good”. The difficulty with Intuitionism is in deciding who’s moral position is more valid. For example, even though abortion is legal and considered ethical (upholds the principles of autonomy (self) and privacy rights) in most states, people still have a moral ambivalence in their “gut” about the law and are actively working towards overturning th law.
Who determines what kind of person one ought to be? Consider the values of some of the world’s leaders, do you agree with their actions or values?
Why increase interest and respect for diverse societal values?
Civil Rights Movement
Feminist Movement
Gender Equity
Affirmative Action
Interaction-exposure among diverse groups (fertilization of new ideas)
Increase access of diverse populations to health care
Greater access to higher education amongst minorities and various socio-economic groups and faculty members.
An example of stereotyping is all Latinos are loud, all Irish people are alcoholics, all New Yorkers are crass and loud, all Southerners are prejudiced, all Sicilians are not members of the Mafia.
Ethnicity can misleading as for example all Latinos do not necessarily share the same cultural values as they come from different countries. Even though one may identify with a certain cultural group, they may not share all the values often associated with that group. For example all Italians are not Catholic.
An example of a misunderstanding which may be a barrier to healthcare is assuming that all people of color have poor dietary habits that lead to poor health, (hypertension, obesity and stroke).
All Chinese have very similar physical appearances, however, their views about their government and procreation may differ.
I need a note.
Why is there a renewed focus on privacy and confidentiality? This has arisen due to the electronic sharing of data of client records and the increased risk of sharing client information. For example, employees in the hospital could access anyone’s records for personal use. Ie: fraud and abuse through identity stealing,celebrities or local public figures and selling personal information to the media. Because insurance companies are accumulating data bases, there is a potential for misuse of client information.
Day to day operations in healthcare facilities are impacted by this law. Examples of potential violations of the law include: Unauthorized personnel overhearing telephone conversations and leaving client records unattended in visual sight of unauthorized personnel. Student or professional abuses may include the unauthorized duplication of client records and inappropriate discussion of client data. Teaching rounds can create potential violations.
There are many more ethical questions and dilemmas we have to deal with today and none has an easy answer.
Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation (ADPIE) Decision Making Model
This model was developed as an on-going evaluation tool. The strategic plan is an ongoing living process. As soon as the organization initiates the assessment process and, therefore, determines the needs of the organization (diagnosis), it is time to move on to the planning phase where the stake holders determine (plan) the strategies to meet the needs of fixing or addressing the problems within the organization (diagnosis). After this phase is completed, it is time to put into action the plans (implement) determined by the organization’s stake holders. It is then imperative to see if the organization has met the goals of the plans and programs that were implemented (evaluate). Upon finishing the evaluation and discovering the success and failures of the implemented plans, (take note already a new organization is emerging), it is time to begin assessing the new organization with it’s new strengths and weaknesses that are a net result of implementing the initial ADPIE process. To do this effectively, it is necessary to initiate the ADPIE process again. At the end of this next ADPIE process, the result will again be a new organization with its new strengths and weaknesses that are a net result of implementing the second ADPIE process. ADPIE then starts again, and so on and so on…. This process is ongoing through out the life of the organization. This helps to prevent inertia, stagnation, and non-growth which is inherent in many organizations who have not put in place an on-going evaluation processes to use as a metric for the on-going outcomes measurements needed for the on-going success of the organization.
When communicating with patients it is helpful to approach the subject in an orderly systemic manner. An example of Feature Benefit Check can be identified in this example of a nurse communicating with a patient.
Example:
“Good morning Mr. Gonzales. I would like to give you and injection that will help fight your infection.(Feature) As your infection clears up your fever will go away and you’ll start to feel better. (Benefit). May I proceed with the injection? (Check).
Ethics consults are confidential. Any recommendations made are purely advisory in nature. Patients, family members, and health care providers remain responsible for making their own decisions.
Ethics consultation services are not intended to replace the normal lines of communication among health care providers, patients, and families. An ethics consult may be helpful when:
A patient or family member want help in “talking through” ethical issues involved in patient care.
There is a serious ethical disagreement between healthcare providers, among family members, between health care providers and a patient or between health care providers and family members.
Ethically, the case is unusual, unprecedented, or very complex.
A patient, family member or health care provider would like to have the benefit of other perspectives in working through an ethical problem.
The importance that ethics committees have attained is indicated by the mention of them as a mechanism for protecting patients’ rights in the standards for patient care developed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO)