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HEALTHCARE ETHICS
Lessons learnt on ethical decision making from the ethical self-assessment
The ethical assessment test is a closed kind of questionnaire that has healthcare ethics related questions. The assessment enables one to gauge their level of compliance to the set ethical standards. Affiliates of the American College of healthcare executives have a set of ethics of which they are expected to strictly adhere to (Steve, 2011, 123). The code of ethics acts as a guidance to the health care executives during their day to day professional relationships.
Abundant lessons and experiences can be derived from the ethical self-assessment on ethical decisional making. The experience of this assessment acts like a mirror to one’s healthcare professional life. It enables one to reflect on their professional life. The assessment is very comprehensive since it entails and fully covers all scopes of health care ethics (Cheshire, 2013). The assessment enables one to evaluate their level of ethics in each of the scopes of healthcare.
The test begins with evaluation on one’s leadership skills. The queries here enable one to learn the skill of coordinating all the other scopes of health care in an effort to ensure smooth running of health care services. This includes role Modell-ship and conflict resolution. The assessment also enables one to learn to learn about decisions important in ensuring an ethical relationship with the community in providing satisfactory services. The process also enables one to jog the mind on the ethical standards required in the patient-healthcare profession interaction. The set of questions asked also facilitates one to learn the suitable ethical measures that should be taken in interacting with the health care facility’s board members (Zahra and Howard, 2011, 243). The test also incorporates the relationship with the other healthcare colleagues. They increase ones knowledge on the required standards of interaction with fellow staff. The assessment outlines on the expectations of the collaboration with buyers and suppliers in the health care.
Effects of professional ACHEs standards on one’s ethical decisions
The healthcare executives are expected to make abundant decisions in their day to day interactions with all forms of people and organization. The American College of Healthcare executives has set a common code of conduct for their affiliates which act as a guidance to their professional activity. Different people have different approaches to different encounters in life (Steve, 2011, 267). However, to ensure that the quality of service is put into consideration by all the healthcare executives, it is vital to put limits within which they work.
The code of conduct affects the executive’s ethical decision making. It influences by a great deal any path they take in the decision making process. Healthcare executive are chiefly involved in solving uncertainties and conflicts that may arise. They also address a couple of competing professional and societal ideals. The ACHEs standards therefore give the executives a skeleton of their expected decisions (Zahra and Howard, 2011, 243). All their decisions made must strictly obey the set ethical principles. This includes the principles of justice, autonomy, beneficence as well as organizational and professional ethical standards and codes.
How ones ethics influence their decision making in healthcare
Ones ethics are also very vital and are essential in decision making (Steve, 2011, Health care executives are expected to make comprehensive decisions that consider the healthcare ethical standard. They are also expected to incorporate their own decisions depending on the situation at hand. Health care executives have a moral obligation to fulfill to the patients, their co-workers and to the society at large.
Therefore, the executives must also integrate their own moral principles in coordinating the activities in a healthcare setup (Rolland, 2009). They must however ensure that, their moral principles are not contra to the ACHEs code of ethics. Consequently, their own ethical principle should be only be used as bridges between the sets of the preset ethical principles. They are also applicable where there are no clearly defined ethical principles. Nevertheless, one’s moral principles should never be used as an excuse for circumventing the ACHEs code of conduct.
Strategies to improve one’s ethical decision making
A handful of strategies can be taken in an effort to improve one’s ethical decision making. First, one should ensure familiarity and awareness to the set ethical standards. One should always define an ethical problem before tackling in order to find the most suitable solution. One should enrich their moral principle in order to create alternative solutions to various ethical hitches. However all alternatives formulated should be in line with the code of ethics set by the ACHEs (Rolland, 2009, 256). The articulated alternative should be evaluated to test for efficiency.
One should be comprehensive when making decisions. The foresight should be on all scopes of healthcare. Skills, knowledge which have been acquired through experiences should be brought together to ensure an excellent performance in the ethical decision making process. It is also important to consult and to engage the involved parties in the decision making. Additional backing should be sought from peers, other similar cases that happened in the past and personal experience (Steve, 2011, 243). The most important thing is to monitor the outcome to ensure that future correction further improvement in the decision making is done.
References
Cheshire, W. (2013). The middle word in bioethics. The International journal of Bioethics. Volume 29 issue 2.
Rolland, P. (2009). Whistle blowing in healthcare: An organization failure in ethics and leadership. The Journal of law, healthcare and ethics. Volume 6, issue 1.
Steve, W. (2011). Beyond bumper sticker ethics: an introduction to the theories of right and wrong (2nd ED). Ohio: Downers Groove LTD.
Zahra M. and Howard B. (2011). Michael Ryan’s writings on medical ethics. New York: springer publisher.
