Specific Ethics
Ethics in the medical profession is nothing new and has been around as long as the medical profession itself and goes back to ancient times and beyond. The area of medical ethics however has advanced rapidly recently with each profession having its own set of frameworks designed to both protect the patient and the care providor.
The main issues are highlighted below and we have tried to cover each with further information on the specific issues faced.
- Confidentiality
Patient confidentiality is a very important part of the relationship of trust between the medical professional and the patient themselves. Without knowing that the information they supply will be treated confidentially the patient may withhold vital facts that could lead to severe risks that would otherwise not have happened. In the digital age we live in all medical professionals must take care to ensure that information is kept secure and that anybody else who has access also adheres to the same standards.
- Patient Consent
Ensuring that a patient is fully informed of any treatment they might be undergoing is vital to forming a trusting relationship with your patient and removes the fear of the unknown. It the patients right to make informed decisions about what , if any treatments they have and before they can make that decision they must have the facts to make a balanced judgement.
- End of life decisions
This is a very topical issue that many medical professional might come across especially those who work with elderly or terminally ill patients. The rights and wrongs of ending of life is something that has sparked many debates about changes to the law regarding this issue and the right of patient to ends one life with diginity.