Develop in detail a situation in which a health care worker might be confronted with ethical problems related to patients and prescription drug use OR patients in a state of poverty. Each scenario must be original to you and this assignment. It cannot be from the discussion boards in this class or any other previous forum. Articulate (and then assess) the ethical solutions that can found using “care” (care-based ethics) and “rights” ethics to those problems. Assessment must ask if the solutions are flawed, practicable, persuasive, etc. What health care technology is involved in the situation? What moral guidelines for using that kind of healthcare technology should be used there? Explore such guidelines also using utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, ethical egoism, or social contract ethics.

Ethical Problems in Healthcare

Issues of ethics are common in healthcare settings, mostly confronted by healthcare providers in care delivery. These challenges make healthcare delivery a challenge, especially when a nurse is caught between meeting the needs of the patient and the needs of the healthcare organization (Peter, 2018).

In this paper, I will develop a situation in which a healthcare worker is confronted with a problem that is ethical in the course of healthcare delivery, articulate and assess the ethical solutions that can be established, identify the healthcare technology that is involved in the situation and the moral guidelines for using such technology, and establish how social technologies like blogs, online encyclopedias, and crowdfunding can get used in either case and the healthcare technology that can get used in such case.

Scenario

The situation in which a healthcare worker got confronted with an ethical problem that I identified is an emergency whereby the healthcare provider discovers that the patent needs an urgent organ transplant, but he does not have medical insurance. In this situation, the patient in critical care is a low-income earner and cannot pay for the necessary medical procedures. The hospital rules in this situation are that such procedures for treatment cannot be carried out on patients that do not have medical insurance or a way to guarantee that they can afford the payment required for such procedure.

In this case, the healthcare worker is caught in a dilemma between saving the life of the patient or following the guidelines provided by the hospital concerning the provision of certain care procedures to patients with medical insurance only. The healthcare worker is caught between fulfilling their duty to their patients, which is to provide care to the best of their ability and the organization’s rules.

Articulation and Assessment of Ethical solutions

Ethics of care in healthcare entail actions that show the patient that you care about their well-being. In the situation discussed above, an ethical solution based on care-based ethics would be to be emotionally supportive of the patient and help them find a solution to their problem (Moriggi et al., 2020).

For instance, the caregiver can share the information about his condition with their family and support them in working towards finding a solution to the problem by providing suggestions to the family on the options they can use like well-wishers or organizations that offer healthcare services to individuals that do not have medical insurance. Another way to show care would be to give hope to the patient to be optimistic about their situation, which would aid their healing process.

Rights-based ethics provide that a particular action would be considered to be ethically correct if it respects the rights of individuals (Lasalvia et al., 2019). In the situation above, the care provider will have to identify a solution that respects the rights of the patient. In this case, the patient has a right to access to care and a universal right to life. As such, the care provider has to protect his right to care to the best of their ability by ensuring that they get the best attainable standard of health.

In this situation, the ethical solution would be to treat the patient and ensure that they get basic treatment while trying to find a solution to their financial challenges, as the principles of nursing practice require that the patient’s rights are protected at all costs, as it is also the duty of the care provider to the patient. It may be challenging to conduct the organ transplant without the approval of the other healthcare providers in charge of the organization because the healthcare provider will have to obtain consent from the organization to perform such procedures. However, when it is a matter of life and death, the healthcare provider is under an obligation to protect the life of the patient.

Technology

The healthcare technology that will be involved in the situation discussed above, which entails a patient that needs a liver transplant for survival, will be the electronic health records which will be used in keeping a record of all the procedures of treatment that the patient gets provided by the healthcare provider (Curtis et al., 2018). It also keeps the health history and the records of the medications that have been administered to the patient while receiving care.

The moral guidelines that should be applied in the use of this technology include nonmaleficence in which the healthcare worker is required to remain competitive in using this technology and provide the best possible care. Another guideline is fidelity in which the healthcare worker is required to keep their commitment to the health of the patient based on the caring virtue. These guidelines fit well with the ethics of utilitarianism, which focuses on consequences such that the healthcare worker has to provide care that amounts to the best possible care to the patient.

Social Technologies

The social technologies that will be used in this case include social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and other internet sites to get support for the patient in terms of helping raise the necessary funds for them to be able to afford the required procedure for their survival. These sites can be used to appeal to well-wishers to help with the current situation and the government to provide ways through which low-income earners can be able to access critical care.

The internet will, therefore, be used in advocating for the right to access care, which should be universal and available to everyone. The moral guideline for using the internet in this situation is based on the principle of justice, which requires that all patients be treated equally and in a fair manner (Small, 2019). It’s only just that every patient has access to the best quality of care. This is based on social contract theory, which is about how benefits should be distributed in society, and in this situation, it’s about the distribution of healthcare benefits and that everyone in society should have equal access to care.

Conclusion

The above discussion presents an analysis of an ethical problem that healthcare providers can be faced within the delivery of care. They end up being caught in an ethical dilemma between doing what is right for the patient based on the ethical principles of nursing and abiding by the rules that have been set by the organization. While dealing with these ethical issues, they have to ensure that they provide the best possible care to the patient and ensure that the rights of patients are protected.

References

Curtis, J. R., Sathitratanacheewin, S., Starks, H., Lee, R. Y., Kross, E. K., Downey, L., … & Lindvall, C. (2018). Using electronic health records for quality measurement and accountability in care of the seriously ill: opportunities and challenges. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 21(S2), S-52.

Lasalvia, A., Ventriglio, A., Colizzi, M., & Bellomo, A. (2019). Stigma as the main obstacle in health care and human rights among people with mental disorders. A rights-based ethics approach. RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA.