synthesizing the following three comments into one comment.

The principle of autonomy can be defined as a patient having the free will to choose their treatment based on informed consent from their physician (Beauchamp & Childress, 2016). An example of this would be a cancer patient that denies treatment due to either their beliefs or acceptance of their condition. While this may go against the recommendation of the physician, they must allow the patient to be in control of their own treatment, regardless of the outcome. The principle of beneficence is the duty of the healthcare provider to always be of benefit to the patient (Beauchamp & Childress, 2016). This can range from treating an incapacitated victim of a motor vehicle accident to preventing a patient from self-harming or suicide. In both instances, any reasonable person of sound mind would agree that treatment would outweigh the recourse of autonomy due to the urgent nature of both cases. The principle of nonmaleficence refers to the practice of not harming or further injuring a patient (Beauchamp & Childress, 2016). Taking this literally could cause further harm to a patient as a lot of treatments do cause harm in the form of pain, such as setting a fractured bone or providing CPR. The key takeaway is, like beneficence, that the treatments end goal outweighs the negatives associated with it. Finally, the principle of justice refers to the fair treatment of all people and that their treatment is provided equally (Beauchamp & Childress, 2016). This ties into the treatment of patients, regardless of their ability to pay as we see today in emergency rooms across the United States.

The healthcareproviders in the world are guided by ethical principles in ensuring delivery of the services in efficient manners in an endeavorto ensure quality health care. In the United States, health care providers have four main ethical principles which include; justice, no maleficence, beneficence, andautonomy.

In the UnitedStates, ethical codes and principles in the health sector, requires health care professionals to ensure equal opportunities and fair distribution of the health outcomes in the society, for instance the nurses should ensure they pay equal attention to all patients by availing medication needed without showing favor because of resource capacity of patients or society has.

Healthcareprofessionals in the US are required in anyaction they take while discharging their mandates be aimed in promoting the wellbeingof the patient, referred toas beneficence. For instance, according to nurse painful procedure may be good to the patientsuch as burning cancer cells but on another hand, patient wish cancer treatment iscanceledand live short but the qualitylife which would cause the nurseto withdrawal cancer treatment (Hall, et al…, 2018)

Health care provider’s ethical values in the USrequires them not to do any harm to the patients. However, this ethical allows for health workers to exercise the potential harmful behaviors in situations which arejustified. For instance, one may prohibit thetakingof the cigarettes which will harm those who are potential users but on the otherside, have a morehelpful impact onthe environment. Finally, autonomy principle states that the patients should be allowed to make an informeddecision free from coercion which therefore demands all health care to disclose all the information and medication they wish to offer to the patients and they may break patients’ autonomy if only they want to save the life of the patient (Butts & Rich, 2015).

References

Butts, J., & Rich, K. (2015). Foundations of ethical nursing practice. Role development in professional nursing practice, 117.

Hall, M. A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M. A., Bagley, N., & Cohen, I. G. (2018). Health care law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.

The four main principles that define the ethical duties owed to patients from healthcare professionals are autonomy, beneficence, nonmalficence, and justice. These four principles deal with how to avoid harming a patient. However, harm is not an easy thing to define, especially when it comes to defining it for the medical or healthcare professions. Nonmaleficence can be described using the quote “to do no harm” (Summers, 2013). This principle revolves around attempting to avoid causing any physical, mental, or financial harm to patients. One example of nonmaleficence would be giving a patient medicine to treat an infection. Beneficence is the other half of the quote that states “benefit only” (Summers, 2013). This principle is centered around acts of kindness from healthcare professionals that people would not receive from strangers (Summers, 2013). One example of beneficence would be staying home from work to avoid spreading illness to others. This is not only avoiding harm to others, but gives the person time to recover, thus doing good and preventing harm. The third principle, autonomy, can be defined as self-ruling (Summers, 2013). This principle states that we should respect others as who they are and for the illness itself to be treated while avoiding judging the patient (Summers, 2013). This principle is about the patient’s ability to choose for themselves. One example of autonomy would be telling a drug user that they need to quit doing drugs. This takes into account the autonomy of the patient, while still trying to help them. The last principle, justice, is about being fair to the patient. Justice, in respects to healthcare, can be defined as unfairness in treatment (Summers, 2013). There are two categories of justice, procedural and distributive (Summers, 2013). One health related example of this would be treating a patient who has AIDS the same way they would treat a patient who has a noncontagious disease.

References

Summers, J. (2013) Principles of healthcare ethics. In E. E. Morrison and B. Furlong (Eds.) Health care ethics: Critical issues for the 21st century. (47-63). Burlington, MA: Jones and Barlett Learning, LLC. Retrieved October 10, 2018 from: http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449665357/Chapter2.pdf

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The principle of respect for autonomy simply means that healthcare providers involve fully capable patients in the entire treatment regimen and ensure their patients give voluntary informed consent without coercion or undue influence (Snyder & Gauthier, 2008). Snyder and Gauthier (2008) point out the problematic task of determining if a patient is capable like a mature minor or patients in the early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s.
The principle of beneficence says that the healthcare provider should always act in the best interest of the patient (Snyder & Gauthier, 2008). This of course can cause problems between physician and family members who can’t let go when it comes to making decisions on turning off life sustaining equipment.
The principle of non-maleficence goes hand in hand with the principle of beneficence because it means that medical practitioners must not harm the patient (Snyder & Gauthier, 2008). Although this principle is based on “First, do no harm”, there’s disagreement among practitioners when it comes to this principle. The authors gave a very clear example of a controversial situation where a provider signed a Do Not Resuscitate order on a very frail elderly patient who’s in the process of dying naturally. He believes that CPR would cause more damage than good to the patient.
The principle of distributive justice means that healthcare resources should be allocated fairly. According to Snyder and Gauthier (2008) this principle applies when resources become expensive and scarce and decisions have to be made about distribution. The problem arises when criteria is being established like ability to pay, merit, and first come, first served etc. The example in the publication couldn’t have highlighted it any better: Although emergency departments must treat patients with an acute illness; once stabilized they can be released if they don’t have any insurance.
Sabrina Moseley
References:
Snyder, J. E., Gauthier, C. C. (2008). Evidence-based medical ethics. Chapter 2: The Underlying
Principles of Ethical Patient Care. Retrieved from
http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9781603272452
-c1.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-577128-p173746241