Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace: Three Examples - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ethical dilemmas occur in everyday life as well as in work settings. The management and even employees are faced with special ethical challenges during service delivery. At many times, the choices negatively affect decision making. People make decisions contrary to what their value system requires; these challenges occur when people are unprepared. The decisions may harm or benefit others based on the manipulation of moral values. The paper will describe three work settings that present special ethical challenges and explain why they are particularly challenging.

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Mental healthcare settings are at many times faced with special ethical challenges. The mental health professionals come in contact with numerous ethical dilemmas when delivering counseling or psychotherapy services (Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2008). Ethical dilemmas have a way of popping up when the mental health professional is not prepared. For example, a mental health professional who has been offering psychotherapy services to a client whose mental state has improved for months may want to refer the client to someone else, but the client insists to remain with him or her. The other work setting that presents a special ethical challenge is palliative care research (Casarett, Knebel & Helmers, 2003). Health professionals may need to improve the quality of life of patients and families who are faced with a life-threatening illness such as coronavirus and patients may be restricted to give voluntary consent to palliative care research. Also, special ethical dilemmas are in hospitals, particularly when the patient is suffering from chronic illness ((Koocher & Keith-Spiegel, 2008). The healthcare providers are faced with ethical dilemmas in that they may make decisions to save the life of the patient without necessarily considering ethical principles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, special ethical challenges occur when the management and people involved want to find better ways and improve the quality of life of patients. For example, ethical issues raised in the mental health profession are unique to the field. It is also similar to the ethical dilemmas faced in the hospital. The medical professionals work to improve the quality of life as well as saving their lives.

References

Casarett, D. J., Knebel, A., & Helmers, K. (2003). Ethical challenges of palliative care research. Journal of Pain and symptom management, 25(4), S3-S5. https://www.ninr.nih.gov/sites/files/docs/ethical-challenges-of-palliative-care-research.pdf

Koocher, G. P., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2008). Ethics in psychology and the mental health professions: Standards and cases. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TBPu12z0f8oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=Ethics+in+Psychology+and+the+Mental+Health+Professions:+Standards+and+Cases+Gerald+P.+Koocher+and+Patricia+Keith-Spiegel+Oxford+University+Press&ots=wkxJUJbKyh&sig=jyqQF3q_1wbRH9mMzasB486pmag