Essay Example Long-Term Care Facilities: At Risk During Flu Outbreaks

Introduction

Long-term care facilities are at risk of experiencing the most cases of influenza in case of an outbreak. The viruses can be easily introduced in the healthcare facilities by healthcare workers, any newly admitted residents, and visitors. The spread of the influenza virus then widens to the residents of the society in which the health facility is located, causing severe illnesses during the outbreak of influenza, which mostly ends up with fatal results. Ethics are important to ensure that all employees, patients, hospital staff, and volunteers receive immunization for the influenza virus to ensure that its spread is minimized.

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Ethics in healthcare is an important aspect because it addresses equity, justice, as well as access to medical care. It also ensures that the moral rights associated with all people involved in medical care services are observed (Rasoal et al., 2017). All any new challenges that may emerge in the accomplishment of the health organizations’ visions are handled effectively before they grow to become bigger concerns that may affect the performance of the organization’s employees. The staff and employees are expected to confront ethical dilemmas that are a common phenomenon in medical institutions. They should ensure that, whereas they would want to protect their rights and human dignity, they should also care for their health and that of their patients.

In the first case where a small group of employees objects the policy of them not being allowed to work if they do not get mandatory influenza immunization, the staff and employees are required to know how important it is supporting the policy. According to the code of ethics of healthcare organizations, the physicians and nurses are required to place the interests of their patients before their interests (Elsayed& Ahmed, 2009). Receiving the vaccination is important because it acts as a way to implement moral actions in the medical organization. The group that is responsible includes the nurse managers, pharmacist management, and other management personnel in the health organization (Hoskins et al., 2018). They are mandated the task to ensure that the employees objecting to the policy of getting a vaccination to change their mind and accept to get vaccinated according to the institution’s policy.

Issues to be considered

Various issues should be considered in the establishment of the policy, including exposing the medical personnel to training on the importance of the vaccine and how it will help to avoid the infections and death of many people. The in-service training will play a major role in promoting knowledge and skills hence minimize any errors that will cause a rapid spread of the influenza virus when it erupts (Riaz et al., 2017). Secondly, communication will be important for medical workers and patients and visitors. Ethical standards in the health organizations will help promote accountability, trust and mutual respect that will play a major in providing respect for all people through the use of informed consent of all employees instead of forcing them to get the vaccination.

The third issue that will be considered in the establishment of the policy will be to use ethical standards in the medical organization to help create public support. Patients and visitors are more likely to accept the vaccination if they trust the integrity and quality of the policy and the success of the health institution’s programs in the past (Cribb et al., 2020). This issue will also increase the chances of some people cooperating to donate to health projects because providing free vaccination might be expensive for the healthcare industry.

Principles of the Ethical Code of the American College of Healthcare Executives

The basic principles that should be considered in the establishment of the policy include autonomy, where healthcare management determines the patients’ wishes to protect their privacy with respect while seeking their consent before administering the vaccination (DeCamp et al., 2018). The second principle is justice, where the management should follow due process in the determination of healthcare limits and treating all staff and patients alike except for the case of those with certain medical issues that require an exemption.

The third principle that the management should consider is beneficence, where the management is required to seek the best interests of the patients and the employees, including nurses that are opposed to the establishment of the policy (DeCamp et al., 2018). The fourth principle that should be considered is non-maleficence, where the medical personnel learn of everything that counts as harm to both the patients and the other employees in the organization. Consideration of these principles will help the healthcare managers to identify the ethical dilemma that exists in the case and settle for effective solutions through having productive conversations with the patients and the staff concerning their desires and needs.

Conclusion

Ethics is an important part of medical practices and must be taken seriously because it plays a major role in shaping the medical profession. The hospital board should not force the hospital staff, employees, and volunteers to receive mandatory immunization for influenza, especially without their consent. Rather they should call them and brainstorm on the way to ensure that they are safe from the disease to avoid infecting patients and leading to the spread of the virus. The management must ensure it considers all ethical requirements of the healthcare organizations to prevent cases of using force to vaccinate the employees. In contrast, there are better options to ensure that the policy is achieved with every employee feeling satisfied with its outcome.

References

Cribb, A., Entwistle, V., & Mitchell, P. (2020). What does ‘quality’ add? Towards an ethics of healthcare improvement. Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(2), 118-122.https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/46/2/118.full.pdf

DeCamp, M., Lehmann, L. S., Jaeel, P., & Horwitch, C. (2018). Ethical obligations regarding short-term global health clinical experiences: an American College of Physicians position paper. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(9), 651-657.http://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/globalanesthesia/documents/ethical-obligations-regarding-stegh.pdf

Elsayed, D. E. M., & Ahmed, R. E. M. (2009). Medical ethics: What is it? Why is it important. Sudanese Journal of Public Health, 4(2), 284-287.http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.574.626&rep=rep1&type=pdf#

Hoskins, K., Grady, C., & Ulrich, C. M. (2018). Ethics education in nursing: Instruction for future generations of nurses. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), 1-4.http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-23-2018/No1-Jan-2018/Ethics-Education-in-Nursing.html

Rasoal, D., Skovdahl, K., Gifford, M., &Kihlgren, A. (2017, December). Clinical ethics support for healthcare personnel: an integrative literature review. In Hec Forum (Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 313-346).Springer Netherlands.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5688194/pdf/10730_2017_Article_9325.pdf

Riaz, S., Khan, E. A., & Jafar, T. (2017). Ethics in health care settings: practices of healthcare professionals and perceptions of patients regarding informed consent, confidentiality, and privacy at two tertiary care hospitals of Islamabad, Pakistan. Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, 29(3), 472-476.https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0e4c/20e04ff4b06e0a785c1052c96001509c390e.pdf