ethics in healthcare

Ethics in Healthcare
Name
Institutional Affiliation

Abstract
The healthcare industry thrives on the need to sustain the well-being of its stakeholders. However, health professionals admit that they face moral, legal, and ethical dilemmas in their quest to realize service delivery to their clients. However, health professionals derive relevant guidance and direction from the utilitarian perspective principles, which help guide them to make informed decisions when delivering services to the people. Despite being faced by moral, ethical, and legal challenges, health professionals admit that they have to apply critical thinking and the guidance of utmost good concepts to ensure that the decision made does not have devastating effects on the health of their patients. The paper applies concepts and principles of ethical practice in healthcare. It demonstrates that health professionals are often faced with dilemmas in their quest to ensure service delivery to their patients. Nonetheless, by applying the principles of utilitarianism, health professionals are able to resolve the challenges that face their patients. Besides, they are able to apply procedural decision-making and judgment to ensure that decisions made focus on the wellbeing of the patient.
Keywords: Ethics, Healthcare, Health professionals, patient

Ethics in Healthcare
Healthcare forms a pivotal part of the growth of the modern society. Healthcare professionals derive their success from the ability to solve challenges that face patients.

Utilitarianism is the creed that forms the foundation of the highest happiness principle; it holds that: an act is right in the proportion that they seek to promote happiness. Conversely, the utilitarian principle holds that actions are wrong when they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. In the field of healthcare, utilitarianism embraces the components of consequentialism, aggregation, welfare, and maximization. Healthcare professionals often face challenges when they have to make critical decisions that have an impact on the livelihoods of their patients.
In healthcare, ethical decision-making plays an instrumental role in enabling organizations to deliver on their mandate to their patients. Utilitarian principles form the foundation upon which ethical decisions can be made to ensure that the health of their patients is enhanced. Moreover, it is prudent to make decisions that will also have a positive impact on the welfare of the family members of those affected. Apparently, the decisions made have a direct effect on the quality of care delivered to the patients (Curtin, 1994). Thus, as Nelson (2005 suggests following the procedural justice methodology provides a possible mechanism to ensure that ethical conflicts are resolved, and decisions reached amicably.
Managers can utilize several procedural methodologies by which managers to resolve ethical problems. Firstly, the will of the people as discussed by Cunningham (1989), provides a reliable method to ensure that the quality of healthcare delivered meets the standards and expectations of all stakeholders. Besides, the decisions made should be for the well-being of the people. The will of the people provides a platform for active participation of others. Another reliable method for resolving procedural methodologies is the restructuring of organizational structure (Cunningham, 1989). Competent persons should be given the responsibility of ensuring that decisions made have a positive impact on the health of patients. The next methodology is to build a system of trust and transparency. When the health system creates confidence amongst its clients, individuals are likely to develop faith in the system and thus ensure that services are delivered according to the expectations of its stakeholders.
Experts are often prompted to make informed decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. The principle of utilitarianism provides a reliable method upon which they can make decisions that will be in the interest of all parties. The use of the multistep ethical decision-making process provides a feasible mechanism upon which ethical perspectives relevant to a conflict can be resolved. The methodology ensures that medical professionals can identify an appropriate ethical concept to address the challenges that face them.
Health practitioners are often faced with ethical and legal dilemmas that have an impact on their decision-making. Firstly, nurses are often confronted by moral distress when in their clinical practice. When nurses have to consider the autonomy of the patient or court orders and what they perceive as the best solution to help improve the life quality of the patient, it is evident that ethical and legal dilemmas may arise.
The primary ethical practice standards for the transmittal of healthcare information as discussed by Nelson (2005) include the identification of the affected stakeholders and their values. Besides, understanding the circumstances that surround ethical conflict should offer relevant mechanisms to help health practitioners to make informed decisions regarding the well-being of the patients.

References
Cunningham, L. (1989). The Will Of The People. The Healthcare Forum Journal; Jul/Aug 1989; 32, 4
Curtin, L. L. (1994). DNR in the OR: ethical concerns and hospital policies. Nursing Management, 25(2), 29.
Nelson, W. A. (2005). An organizational ethics decision-making process. Healthcare Executive, 20(4), 8-14.