Objectives
At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to:
- Define ethics
and medical ethics, and explain the sources of these ethics.
- Identify
how medical ethics impact patient care.
- Recognize
new medical ethics issues.
- Apply ethical
principles to help improve patient care.
- List and
explain the four underlying principles of bioethics.
- Understand
the relationship between laws, professional ethics, and professional
codes such as the AMA Code of Ethics.
Introduction
In many ways, healthcare is an art and a scientific endeavor. Professionals
try to act in ways that promote the best health of the patient.
But it is not always clear what is best for the patient. Thus at
times, choices have to be made that focus on what is best for the
individual or their relatives, what medical records can be disclosed
and what must be held in strictest confidentiality.
Healthcare Ethics
is the study of moral issues that concern healthcare professionals
in medicine, nursing, law, sociology, philosophy, and theology.
It deals with healthcare values, obligations, rights and needs.
Medical ethics in particular trace its roots to the old Greek Hippocratic
Oath, which required physicians above all to "do no harm."
In the last
half of this century there have been momentous changes in every
aspect of the practice of medicine. Even the very scope of the practice
of medicine has been expanded. No longer limited to treatment and
cure, advances in technology and pharmacology have brought about
a rapidly increasing ability to intervene in life and death situations;
to alter the physical and the emotional; and soon, to alter human
genetics. As the healthcare professional is constantly being faced
with new areas in which appropriate actions have to be defined,
medical ethics must now race to keep up with medical advances. This
course is designed to provide an overview of the current state of
medical ethics to better enable healthcare professionals to provide
the best patient care possible. It will also provide tools for guidance
in making ethical decisions regarding patient care and interactions
with colleagues and facilities. It is divided into three sections:
1. History and background; 2. Deciding ethical questions; 3. Contemporary
issues. This course does not seek to provide definitive answers
to what is and what is not ethical, because too many variables exist,
including an individualšs own religious and/or moral values. Instead,
it provides information and direction so that the healthcare professional
can determine his or her own standards of ethical behavior, for
it is a determination that will have to be made over and over throughout
onešs medical career.
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