Ethical issues

 Ethical issues

 Ethical issues are solely based on the human understanding of right from wrong; this means that any human is accepted as either right or wrong; thus, they can vary from one individual to the next one. On the other hand, legal issues are standards or principles that are set and written by the government or any law-making institution. Therefore, the following essay seeks to explain the ethical and legal issues that have presented themselves in a case where a patient gets assaulted when receiving medical treatment at a hospital and how hospitals should behave when it comes to protecting the patients under their care.

Question One

Several ethical and legal issues have presented themselves in the above case. One of the main legal issues presented includes medical negligence. The nurses have an ethical duty to ensure that all their patients are taken care of and protected while under their protection, especially while they recover. Most patients in this state are normally under heavy medication, and many of them are usually unaware of their current surroundings hence unable to take care of themselves.

The nurses who were taking care of the plaintiff that day should have ensured that they had their eyes on the patient the entire time, which they did not. Furthermore, a physician who was not assigned to the patient came and assaulted the patient, and he went away without the nurses noticing that something had happened to the patient. They saw that the physician was not the one assigned to the plaintiff, but they did not stop him when he went in to examine and assault the plaintiff (Rodrigues, 2000).

An ethical issue that presented itself is the lack of professional boundaries or patient-doctor relationships. Ideally, the relationship between a patient and a nurse or physician is usually where the patient comes in, and the physician treats the patient. However, in this case, the physician went ahead and performed an unauthorized examination which did not follow said protocols and went overboard to assault the patient. The physician who examined the plaintiff went overboard and surpassed the boundaries that he was supposed to do illegally since he was not the physician assigned to treat the plaintiff.

Question Two

Two of the physician’s codes of ethics were breached by the physicians who assaulted the plaintiff. They include; physicians are required to practice competently and show respect for the rights and the dignity of the patient, and the physicians are also supposed to display professionalism. The physician who assaulted the plaintiff broke both these codes, a code that is used as a blueprint by every practicing physician when it comes to handling patients (BAKER, 1999).

This was done when the physician examined a female patient without a female nurse, which showed that the physician did not demonstrate competency. Additionally, the plaintiff tried to plead with the physician to stop uncovering her nursing gown. Still, he kept on doing it, which means that he disrespected her rights and tainted her dignity.

Question three

In this case, my recommended course of action would be to discipline both the nurses assigned to the plaintiff and the physician who performed an unauthorized examination. Both of these parties breached legal standards for the provision of healthcare; hence both of them should be taken to court and the rightful actions taken against them for failing to safeguard a recovering and vulnerable patient.

References

Rodrigues, R. J. (2000). Ethical and legal issues in interactive health communications: a call for international cooperation. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2(1), e8.

BAKER, R. A. (1999). The American medical ethics revolution: how the AMA’s code of ethics has transformed physicians’ relationships with patients, professionals, and society. JHU Press.