Essay Sample on Public Health Emergencies: Ensuring Ethical Standards for Optimal Care

Introduction

Ethics is an important factor when it comes to the preparedness of public health emergencies to ensure that all the health activities are done in the right way. The ethics guide the stakeholders in the health sector by ensuring the professionals do their work in the right manner. Health emergencies are done where patients require urgent medical attention; therefore, medical professionals have to ensure they maintain high ethical working standards that meet the required standards needed by the professional standards.

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Ethics facilitate preparedness in public health during an emergency. When the officials involved in emergency preparedness act ethically, they achieve more by reducing the impact of emergencies (Khan et al. 2018). Preparedness promotes a safe and healthy environment before, during, and after the emergency. Ethics are guiding principles that ensure that each person does what they are expected to ensure that they handle the emergency as expected.

One of the ethical goals that guide the public health emergency preparedness is the reduction of harm and subsequently promoting benefit. PHEPR activities should be designed with the objective of protecting the safety of the people, health as well as overall well-being (Mastroianni, Kahn, & Kass, 2019). The preparedness in public health aims to reduce the number of injuries, death, disability, disease, as well as the suffering that occurs during an emergency.

The second ethical goal for PHEPR is equal liberty and human rights. Equal Liberty principle dictates that each person should be given an equal right. The system should guarantee liberty for all, whereby the rights and liberties are distributed. The actions of the PHEPR are also designed to promote the autonomy and dignity of all people (Mastroianni, Kahn, & Kass, 2019). Autonomy refers to the ability of a person to make important decisions. In public health and preparedness of emergencies, the involved stakeholders should be allowed to make independent decisions regarding the safety and health promotion of the people.

Professionalism is very critical in the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response. For PHEPR activities to be performed effectively, professionalism is essential in the promotion of competency and promotion (Mastroianni, Kahn, & Kass, 2019). The professionals need to be work as a team in order to reduce the injuries or deaths that result from emergencies. Professionalism entails skills such as strong work ethic, teamwork skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, strong work ethic, as well as problem-solving skills. Such skills are needed to achieve the goals of public health emergency preparedness.

The professionals also work in respecting the vulnerable, including those with special needs. During the emergency, people with special needs are more susceptible to harm than the general population (Khan et al. 2018). They are susceptible to harm as well as injustice, and it is the responsibility of the public health emergency team to ensure that they are well prepared to take care of the needs of the vulnerable groups. In the absence of careful identification of the strategies to be used in times of disaster, the needs of the vulnerable are likely to be undermined. The emergency public health professionals should include identification of the people with special needs, their specific needs, and how they can be fulfilled.

Accountability and transparency are essential in emergency preparedness in public health. During emergencies such as disease outbreaks, the power and the authority of the professionals should not be abused (Khan et al. 2018). A clear plan should be created to assess and evaluate ongoing as well as post-emergency plans. The mitigation of emergencies should not only entail the activities during emergency prevention but also after the implementation of the actions. The professionals should be accountable for their actions and ensure that they are aligned to the objectives of the emergency preparedness.

On the other hand, transparency requires cooperation between health care providers and citizens. In some instances, the emergency implementation plan requires citizens' movement to be restricted in order to curb the spread of the disease (Khan et al. 2018). In such a situation, people should be informed of the reasons why their movement needs to be restricted. Awareness boosts cooperation, which is essential in the implementation of a Public Health emergency preparedness plan.

Ethics makes the medical professionals do their work and be determined to follow the set guidelines; therefore, ethics plays an important role in guiding the preparedness of public health emergency. There are different ethical issues that are at risk of destroying the entire medical emergencies (Leider, DeBruin, Reynolds, Koch, & Seaberg, 2017). Among the ethical challenges that exist when dealing with health emergency preparedness. There are medical professionals with personal interests; hence they do not have the will to do what is right, but the ethical standards set make them act in the right manner. The medical professionals have an obligation of maintaining the ethical code of conduct in all of the activities that they engage in.

There are ethics committees that are set to monitor the activities of all the professionals do the right thing as expected. The ethics committees regularly check the conduct of the medical professionals and guide in areas where they don't follow the ethical conduct required by profession (Chan, Wright, & Parker, 2019). Different professionals have different levels of expertise; therefore, the level of ethics differs in different situations. The process of planning health emergencies ensures that all ethical procedures are followed and incorporated in all stages of emergency health procedures. The monitoring of the medical professionals by their seniors ensures that all the ethical standards are maintained during emergencies.

The role of ethics in public health emergency preparedness is to define the code of conduct that is supposed to be maintained during emergencies (Chan, Wright, & Parker, 2019). There are risks that need to be prevented during emergencies such as terrorism, where criminals might want to take advantage of the vulnerability of emergencies to commit their crimes. Ethics ensure such criminals are denied the opportunity to execute the evil, unethical behavior such as medical terrorism where people are made to suffer intentionally.

Ethics also plays an important role in ensuring that there is a balance between the functionality of health institutions and the needs have the communities were all interests are protected. The decision makers know that they have the responsibility of ensuring that emergencies are managed in the right manner. There are crises and disasters that happen and become extremely challenging to manage (Wynia, 2006). The best way to handle such scenarios is through preparedness, where people are equipped with skills in handling such situations. The ethics principles are among the disciplines that the professionals are taught. The ethical principle plays a significant role in building trust and more among the professionals and stakeholders that are in charge of medical attention and disasters. When the employees work as a team with a common goal, there are fewer chances of failure during health emergencies.

Ethics in public health emergencies are related to restrictions, rationing, and responsibilities. The three R's are mainly applied during health emergencies, such when there is an outbreak of a disease such as a Coronavirus outbreak in China. The health laws use the ethics principles to control such scenarios where the restriction is done to prevent the further spread of the disease (Chan, Wright, & Parker, 2019). The rationing is done to stop the agent, causing the disease to spread further. The responsibilities are given the health professionals to ensure everything is running smoothly. Ethics helps in managing health emergencies.

There are different challenges experienced in handling health emergencies, depending on the preparedness of the people that are responsible for managing health emergencies. Countries need to be prepared for health disasters to ensure they do not face challenges because of the lack of preparedness Wynia, 2006). The fundamental factor of public health, including during emergencies, is ensuring there is public safety; ethics is the foundation of public safety. Ethics ensures all health standards are followed and maintained when handling medical emergencies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ethics plays an important role in guiding the medical professionals in public health emergencies. The ethics principles are responsible for ensuring there is a fair playing ground for both the patients and the medical professionals while eliminating medical emergencies. There is always a threat of disasters happening; therefore, the emergency team needs to be always ready to handle challenging situations. There is also the threat of biological crimes happening; therefore, personnel involved need to be trained well, bearing in mind the rise of terrorism in the world. There are also natural disasters that have the potential to happen hence the need for preparedness.

Reference

Chan, E. Y., Wright, K., & Parker, M. (2019). Health-emergency disaster risk management and research ethics.

Khan, Y., O'Sullivan, T., Brown, A., Tracey, S., Gibson, J., Genereux, M., ... & Schwartz, B. (2018). Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience. BMC public health, 18(1), 1344.

Leider, J. P., DeBruin, D., Reynolds, N., Koch, A., & Seaberg, J. (2017). Ethical guidance for disaster response, specifically around crisis standards of care: a systematic review. American journal of public health, 107(9), e1-e9.

Mastroianni, A. C., Kahn, J. P., & Kass, N. E. (Eds.). (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics. Oxford University Press.

Wynia, M. (2006). Ethics and Public Health Emergencies: Rationing Vaccines. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 14 February 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15265160601021256?needAccess=true&journalCode=uajb20.