ethically/morally correct choices

Solution Preview

Class Lesson:
Legal and Ethical Aspects of Healthcare

I. Introduction:

When the need to decide between two or more ethically/morally correct choices, two or more unacceptable choices (the lesser of two evils) or by making a choice you eliminate the possible selection of any other choice, an ethical dilemma exists. The very nature of today's healthcare environment, with its focus on team-based treatments, new forms of treatments and available technologies and a rapidly increasing presence of economic stress for both patients and the facilities providing healthcare, tends to facilitate the occurrence of these ethical dilemmas.
Healthcare professionals often find themselves working with other healthcare personnel in the care and treatment of a wide array of patient types. Within these working relationships, there will undoubtedly be variations between personal and professional values and expectations that may challenge their overall sense of ethics and morality. Within this lesson, we will cover several aspects related to legal and ethical issues as they relate to healthcare management decisions as well as their relationship to professional medical standards, the affect of religious and cultural traditions on healthcare decisions. A specific framework for approaching and resolving ethical issues will be looked at to assist medical professionals in defining morally acceptable resolutions to values-based dilemmas.

II. Learning Objectives:

Upon completion the student will know:
? The definitions of ethics;
? The cultural and religious considerations of decisions regarding healthcare;
? The 4 key principles that healthcare professionals must take into consideration in regards to ethical dilemmas; and
? How to address ethical decisions using a framework designed for the resolution of ethical and moral dilemmas.
? Some of the ethical issues of healthcare and the elderly population in the U.S.

At the end of the lesson, students will participate in a fictitious scenario with ethical and moral implications. They will be expected to utilize the newly discovered framework for resolving dilemma to seek out and find the proper resolution of the issue.

III. Definition of Ethics:

Although the words "ethics" and "morals" are frequently though of as meaning the same thing, the following descriptions will be used to help differentiate the two these terms in
ethical arguments.

A. Morals: "a study of human behavior as a consequence of beliefs about what is right or wrong, or good or bad, insofar as that behavior is useful or effective. In a sense, "morals" is the study of what is thought to be right and what is generally done by a group, society, or a culture. In general, ...