My course is Ethics of Healthcare – Master of Health Administration.
a. Directly posting their own responses as answers to the questions below. Write in no more than 600 words but no less than 500 words.
Suppose that you are a member of ethics committee in your hospital and just reviewed the case that a baby with a severe brain malfunction was born and a decision should be made whether the committee allows the doctor to withdraw fluids and nutrition. What steps do you recommend that the hospital staff including the doctors, nurses, and social workers to follow?
Answer the following questions based on your own evaluation, a. Who uses health care the most frequently in America? b. What is the most expensive care in America among primary/preventive care or critical/emergency care or geriatric care? c. How much does medical treatment contribute to the quality and length of life? Then, answer what is the most urgent problem that we need to fix in your opinion?
Suppose you have decided that spirituality does have a place in healthcare practice. What arguments would you make to the CEO for increasing opportunities for spirituality in your hospital?
My classmate Discussion:
With such an unfortunate event, the steps that should be followed would reflect on what the parents decision is. As a doctor, I would evaluate the stability, and likelihood of the baby living or analyze how much time the baby has to live. From the doctors evaluation, this would then need to be presented to the nurses and social workers to find the pros and cons to present to the parents for them to make a fair unbiased decision on what they should do that would impact their lives forever. The only thing that doctors can do is everything in their power to give the medical support the baby needs, the nurses need to make sure the parents are stable physically and mentally and the social workers need to ensure the parents are being dealt with in an ethical, and moral standard. The babys fate is ultimately up to the parents only, any other professional advice should be taken in and considered, but not a definite to change others minds.
The population that mostly uses healthcare is geriatrics and pediatric patients due to both needing constant continuum of care with follow ups bi-weekly, monthly or semiannually to make sure their conditions or treatments are up to date whether it is prescription wise or preventative care. Unfortunately, those who mostly use healthcare services is a part of the geriatric population with the most rapidly growing costs due to the rise in chronic care. In addition to providing more care, the costs of medicine and specialty services is adding onto the total rising costs. The amount of medical treatment versus the amount of times a treatment is needed contributes to the quality and length of life. There could be severe cases that need more attention and frequent medical office visits, versus those who have a onetime case that turns into an incurable disease. In which does not translate to the more medical treatments the better. As much as preventative care needs to be focused on, the accessibility needs to be fixed in this country, but seems to have the obstacle of financial stability that puts it at a halt.
The arguments that would be brought upon the CEO in order to increase opportunities for spirituality in the hospital that we work in is the uplifting moral that would set the tone of the hospital. By presenting this idea of not only being my own, but by creating a community based on specific spirituality beliefs in order to establish an accepting environment for everyone would be comforting for many and not just myself. Especially if I am a professional which feels the need to bring this subject matter to the work place, it means that something is missing emotionally, culturally and community wide in the organization between colleagues and those who partake in the hospital. Many believe spirituality should be put aside in a healthcare setting, but it can bring mental peace to those who are unsettled in their mental state or even physical state. It is a matter of allowing others to feel accepted versus segregated based off their beliefs and who they look up to as a higher in the universe.
