Intimidation is not a necessary toolbox and is unethical when used to protect self-interests. Fairness and equality must be afforded to all case scenarios and patients. Coercive means that are used to intimidate others should be brought to the attention of the authorities. There is a need to protect the rights of the patients as well as those that are afforded to the workers. Health care professionals need to exercise restraint in all that they do so as to maintain harmony in the workplace while upholding best practices (Charles n.d). Power is an important consideration that has a critical role in healthcare. Power is equally important as it may be an influence on patient outcomes. It may affect ethics as control asserted may compromise or enshrine ethical conduct in a workplace setting. Power provides the right basis through which there is increased use of ethical considerations that are affected by those that are in the authority.
The policy for refusal of nurses to admit patients when the capacity for admittance is low may raise ethical concerns on the provision of health services to patients by the medical practitioners. Ethics provides that health care should be mandatorily provided in all instances. However in accordance to what is expected of us, some requirements must be checked to ensure that the best health care practices are maintained. A staffing policy is important especially in cases where there is a limitation in resources as staffing is dependent on the number of resources that the hospital can provide about its patient capacity (Bucknall 2000). The authority conferred by the policy is best suited for such a case scenario as the patients may be deprived of significant health care benefits due to understaffing. This is unethical especially in the admittance of patients then subsequently providing medical services that do not meet the required standards.
Trained ICU nurses may make critical decisions based on life threatening decisions and assessments (Heyland et. al. 2003). Decisions reached at, are ethical in that they affect the life of the patient and have to consider the best judgment practices in hospitalization matters. There are usually collaborative efforts with physicians to ascertain that effective decisions are arrived at as decisions are based on the quality of life and preservation of those hospitalized. However, hospital policy may sometimes dictate that some decisions take precedence over critical care decisions.
Hospital policy may limit the provision of intensive care services based on the ages, functionality and quality of life and it can be the hospitals sole mandate to ensuring that policies are upheld. Legal requirements for such an action are that policies may be enshrined in the hospitals charter, therefore, unenforceable especially if the patient was privy to the same. However a legal course of action may be undertaken if there are no such policies and critical care decisions are passed without consideration of the patient’s health resulting in health deterioration.
References
Heyland, D. K., Cook, D. J., Rocker, G. M., Dodek, P. M., Kutsogiannis, D. J., Peters, S. & O'Callaghan, C. J. (2003). Decision-making in the ICU: perspectives of the substitute decision-maker. Intensive care medicine, 29(1), 75-82.
Bucknall, T. K. (2000). Critical care nurses’ decision‐making activities in the natural clinical setting. Journal of clinical nursing, 9(1), 25-36.
Charles L. Sprung. (n.d.). Ethics. Retrieved from http://dl4a.org/uploads/pdf/ClassicPapersCCMEthics.pdf
NURSES AND MANDATORY REPORTING LAWS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cphins.com/blog/post/nurses-and-mandatory-reporting-laws
