Legal and Ethical Issues Flashcards
Often the laws and ethics ovelap, as their concerns are similar but their scopes and processes are different
- Blended into common standards of conduct and almost w/out exception, what constitutes a breach of ethics will constitute a breach of the law and vice versa
LAW
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Law→ foundation of statutes, rules, and regulations that govern people
- GOAL→ resolve disputes w/out violent action, and protect citizen’s health, safety and welfare
Ethics
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Ethics→ covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility
- Professional ethics provide rules by which practitioners decide HOW they act toward their pts, other prof’s, and one another
PT Code of Ethics
Document in Notability
READ IT!!!!!
Ethical Terms:
Ethics
Systematic reflection and analysis of morality
Ethical Terms:
Morality
Morality is concerned w/ relations bw people and how we can live in peace and harmony
*Human values
*Conduct
2 Subgroups of Morality
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Duties
- Moral responsibilities or demands
- they stem from specific social relationships
- Ex. maintaining confidentiality
- they stem from specific social relationships
- Moral responsibilities or demands
-
Rights
- The entitlement to act in a certain way.
- If you have the right to do something, then someone has the duty to act on that
Ethical Principles:
Beneficence
- Promote GOOD
- To be in the pos. to bring about good in your interactions w/ pts/clients
- Bring about a positive good
Ethical Principles:
Nonmaleficence
- First, do no harm
- Refrain from doing harm to yourself or to others
- Thought to be a nexus of trad. healthcare ethics and is often attributed to the author of the Hippocratic Oath
Ethical Principles:
Fidelity
- Promise-keeping
- Principle of Fidelity comes from the Latin root, fides, which means faithful
- Being faithful to pt means meeting the pts reasonable expectations
Ethical Principles:
Justice
- Fair distribution
- The duty to be treated fairly and w/out bias
Ethical Principles:
Autonomy
- Duty to respect persons and their rights of self-governance and self-determination
- Sometimes ethical principles are @ odds w/ ea. other
- Respect for older adults autonomy may be in conflict w/ the therapists desire to prevent harm or do good
*Be the BEST you can be!!!
Ethical Dilemmas in Geriatrics
DNR
Principles related to this:
Autonomy
Fidelity
Nonmaleficence
Ethical Dilemmas in Geriatrics
DNR
What is it?
- form of an Advance Directive (AD)
- Request to NOT have CPR if a pts heart stops or if they stop breathing
- unless given specific direcions→ you should try to help all pts whose hearts stopped/stopped breathing
DNR
How can pts use this?
- Pts can use Advanced Directive form OR tell their Dr. that they do not want to be resuscitated.
- DNR order put into med record
- accepted by Drs and hospitals in ALL STATES
- DNR order put into med record
Ethical Dilemmas in Geriatrics:
Other Directives such as Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
Principles related:
Autonomy
Fidelity
Other Directives or
Document indicates w/ some specificity the kinds of decisions the pt would like made should he be unable to participate
Instructive Directive
Spells out specific decisions
Ex. Living Will
Proxy Directive
Designate a specific person to make HC decisions for them
Ex. Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
Major argument for use of Instructive Directives
Ex. Living Will
- allows an indiv to participate indirectly in future med care decisions even if they are unable to make informed decisions
- extends indiv autonomy
- ensures that future care is consistent w/ previous desires
- helps prevent unwanted and ultimately futile invasive medical care at the end-of-life