Essay Example on AMA Code Violation: Patient's Rights Disregarded

In this video, there is a clear violation of the American Medical Association code of conduct concerning patient consent. For instance, the physicians and doctors tried to try and change the patient's mind concerning the type and nature of the care he would receive. There is also an apparent lack of professionalism - the doctors treat each other rudely and have no concern for the patient. For instance, one of the physicians keeps saying that they should disregard the patient because 'he will die anyway.' Disrespectful behavior and sexual misconduct among physicians are evident in the video.

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To add to this, research conducted by professionals working at John Hopkins Hospital found the Grey's anatomy show failed to meet essential professionalism and bioethical issues. In this research, the authors visited episodes of the show focusing on bioethical incidents. They carefully analyzed to see if those steps taking were compliant with codes used in hospitals in real life. The results found were shocking; Grey's anatomy failed to ask consent 14 times, and also performed 'ethically questionable departures from standard practice' (Bradley, 2018). Most inadequate depictions were made by hurrying discussions and mostly being one-sided, there was also a refusal of some physicians not to answer patient questions, and a complete lack of consent for some risky procedures. Most of these physician-patient incidents meant the doctor was endangering the patient unnecessarily and acting mostly unethically for a partly favorable outcome on behalf of the patient, which many times meant going against the patient's wishes. This practice, in reality, is very unorthodox and would not be acceptable in a hospital (Czarny et al., 2010)).

Doctors choose to ignore the DNR and decide to perform CPR instead of bringing a patient back, in many cases, which they are successful. Ignoring the patient's wishes like this, in reality, would most like result in the patient's family suing the doctor or hospital, but this doesn't seem to ever happen in the show (Bradley, 2018). This gives viewers an assumption that doctors do not respect their wishes and could create fear towards health-care professionals where they do not feel comfortable relaying their requests to their doctors.

The show fails to accurately portray the handling of ethical situations that arise and exactly how these issues are handled in the hospital. Many ethical dilemmas shown are almost always treated as unimportant, and interns and residents alike can break ethical or legal rules without significant consequences (Bradley, 2018). This is not only harmful to viewers to watch but gives the audience the idea that all hospitals abide by these standards in real life, which is not true. Because of this, patients may develop distrust with their doctors for further visits and may even fear to go to a hospital setting.

Television and medical drama are inescapable and, for the most part, quite addicting, especially for individuals hoping to one day be physicians, and it can give them an insight into life to come, or maybe even let them dream of what could've been. In the digital day and age that is available today, medical drama shows should choose to explore profoundly on how doctors and patients are presented in their episodes and take into account what effect this all has on their audiences'. Medical shows have a dramatic impact on viewers, and producers and writers alike should recognize that. Shows like Grey's anatomy do a great job of accurately showcasing procedures, but now need to take it a step further and accurately depict doctors too.

References

Bradley, Laura. (2018). "Is Grey's Anatomy Finally Nearing the End of the Line?" Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/greys-anatomy-season-15-ellen-pompeo.

Czarny, M. J et al. (2010)."Bioethics and Professionalism in Popular Television Medical Dramas." Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 36, no. 4, 2010, pp. 203-206., doi:10.1136/jme.2009.033621