Pandemic Flu: Navigating an Ethical Dilemma - Research Paper

Introduction

An ethical dilemma consists of the need for two or more equally unacceptable courses of action, and it often involves choosing one action preventing the selection of another. In a case of severe pandemic flu treatment, the healthcare organisation will face a surge in demand for care from many very sick people who suffer from a highly transmissible disease. The dilemma in such a case would be the fact that in the case of a pandemic who should receive treatment first between the healthcare providers, the sickest patients, and the general population. The dilemma exists in the fact that prioritising one group, such as the sickest patients, may not be in their best interest because patients can only be cared for when the healthcare providers are healthy (Rainer, 2018). The dilemma can be framed as competing obligations because on one side is the need to protect the sickest patient and to protect the healthcare provider on the other, in between the two is the need to maintain good health for the general population.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

To come up with a solution requires creative thinking, and the solution for this dilemma exists in the fact that healthcare providers need to be prioritised and be treated first in the case of a pandemic. It ensures that the sickest patients and the general population get to receive optimal services of the caregivers because the performance of healthcare providers is high when they are in good health. Quality care is the goal of healthcare, and hence patients should form the priority group because healthcare in the US is costly; however, patients can only be prioritised after the health of the caregivers is guaranteed. It is for this reason that solutions to ethical dilemmas such as competing obligations should be provided to enable the healthcare system to run with ease and meet its set goals and objectives.

Legal Standards

The code of ethics for the nursing profession advocates that nurses should promote and protect the rights and health of patients (Honigsbaum, 2018). The bill of rights states that nurses have the right to serve in an environment that facilitates ethical practice in accordance with the code of ethics and various legislations with interpretive statements. The ANA code of ethics for nurses requires all nurses to have justification for their ethical decisions and consequences basing on universal moral principles. If a pandemic encompasses a quarantinable disease, then the CDC has the authority to issue an isolation order that is punishable by both imprisonments as well as fines (Misrahi, 2017). Such an agency only implements public health laws such as the authorisation of physicians and healthcare workers to have access to individuals in quarantine. From this law, it can be noted that healthcare providers are more active during pandemic situations and so should be treated first or given vaccines to ensure that what they do is not interrupted.

Professional Guidelines

Nurses must understand the professional guidelines and standards which dictate how they are to operate and behave in their nursing practice. Various organisations such as the American Medical Association actively address the issue of competing obligations for not only nurses but also the healthcare providers who associate with patients directly or indirectly. Some public health facilities lack standard guidelines on various nursing procedures. The American nurse Association issues a position statement on the need for joint responsibility for registered nurses, and this involves the fact that nurses and all employers in care settings should collaborate in a way that ensures that optimal outcomes of patients are achieved (Winland-Brown, 2015). Ethical dilemmas that go against this purpose should be dealt with early, and such solutions should aim to benefit not only patients but also nurses.

In a position statement, ANA stated that the public has a right to expect the nurses to demonstrate professional competence of the highest order throughout their careers, and this organisation believes that healthcare providers, especially nurses, are individually responsible and accountable for providing an environment that is conducive for competent practice. Therefore to promote competence in healthcare, healthcare providers ought to be treated first in case of a pandemic so that they can be competent in offering services without any limitation whatsoever. The assurance of competence is a shared responsibility of the profession from professional organisations to individual nurses.

Ethical Theory

Ethical theories enable the articulation of a justifiable rationale when one tries to determine why one decision is wrong, and the other is right. The natural law theory is an example of ethical theories that are relevant to healthcare in that it holds the view that the rightness of various actions is self-evident from the laws of nature (Amer, 2019). Morality, therefore, is not determined by human preferences and customs but rather by the laws of reason which have been implanted in nature and the human intellect. For this reason, choosing to treat healthcare providers first in case of a pandemic aligns with the need for the greater good and hence is dictated by nature and human intellect. It is true even though it may appear false, any behaviour that goes against the natural order of things is immoral. Based on this notion, treating healthcare providers first with the full understanding that they will, in turn, help the sickest patients and the general population is morally right as well as ethical based on human reasoning.

Moral Principles

Some basic principles in healthcare are related to the notion of doing good, and these clear and consistent principles work to ensure that quality healthcare is delivered to individuals as well as families. To begin with, the moral principle of beneficence involves promoting the welfare of others by morally taking positive steps towards helping others. In the case of this dilemma, healthcare providers should be treated first because they have the potential to promote the welfare of others when they are in good health. Treating the sickest patient or the general population first seems like the right thing to do, but in reality, it is not a positive step towards helping anyone. It is because to make steps towards the welfare of the majority of people, the health of the caregivers should be dealt with first.

Secondly, Utility is another moral principle that is relevant in healthcare, and it involves the attempt to bring about the greatest amount of benefit to as many people involved as possible. It should be in accordance with the other moral principles; hence, advocates for the greatest benefit and least harm (Fourie, 2015). When faced with ethical dilemmas, individuals should ensure that whatever course of action they opt for should be attempting to provide the greatest benefit to many of the people impacted by the consequences of the dilemma. It is morally wrong to treat the sickest patients first because when the pandemic deteriorates for the general population, the healthcare providers may not be in a good position to help. It is for this reason that treating healthcare providers first is essential and ethical in case of a pandemic because healthy caregiver gives the greatest amount of benefit to as many people as they can in terms of medical care

Conclusion

The sources found are partially in support of the solution provided for this dilemma; the reason for the partiality is because the solution goes beyond the normal ideas of right and wrong. The solution provided is in the interest of all the groups involved, from the sickest patient to the healthcare providers and, ultimately, the general population. The author orders the community above other values such as justice and security, and in the same way, the scholarly sources reviewed point towards the need for decisions that enable the community to be better as a whole. It is important to note that the welfare of everyone affected by the pandemic is directly tagged on the welfare of the healthcare providers, everyone benefits from them being treated first, and hence, a course of action is provided for finding a solution to the dilemma.

References

Amer, A. B. (2019). Understanding the Ethical Theories in Medical Practice. Open Journal of Nursing, 9(02), 188.

Fourie, C. (2015). Moral distress and moral conflict in clinical ethics. Bioethics, 29(2), 91-97.

Honigsbaum, F., Holmstrom, S., & Calltorp, J. (2018). Making Choices for Healthcare. CRC Press.

Misrahi, J. J. (2017). The CDC's Communicable Disease Regulations: Striking the Balance between Public Health & Individual Rights. Emory LJ, 67, 463.

Rainer, J., Schneider, J. K., & Lorenz, R. A. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in nursing: An integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(19-20), 3446-3461.

Winland-Brown, J., Lachman, V. D., & Swanson, E. O. C. (2015). The new code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements'(2015): Practical clinical application, Part I. Medsurg Nursing, 24(4), 268.