How Institutional Conceptual Frameworks Influence Ethical Decision Making

We wrap things up by exploring institutions and groups designed to help ensure that hospital staff at all levels think and act ethically in caring for patients. Accrediting bodies are oversight agencies charged with performing accreditation of hospitals and helping to establish standards for health care delivery. Their aim is to keep the quality of care as high as possible and to make sure the care is delivered ethically. Ethics committees are groups of individuals within hospitals that meet regularly to advise staff on ethically difficult cases and to promote an ethical institutional culture.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 2: Apply sound ethical thinking related to a health care issue.
  • Demonstrate sound ethical thinking in applying ethical principles and moral theories to a specific case.
• Competency 3: Analyze ethical issues associated with patient care from the perspectives of various health care professionals.
  • Explain professional codes of ethics and apply them in to a specific case.
• Competency 4: Explain the conceptual framework that health care leaders use to make ethical decisions.
  • Explain organizational documents like mission and value statements and use them to analyze a case study.
  • Explain the role of accrediting bodies and applies this understanding in analyzing a case study.
• Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with health care professionals.
  • Provides validation and support within written communications by including relevant examples and supporting evidence using APA citations.
  • Produce writing with minimal errors in grammar, usage, spelling, and mechanics.

Preparation

Complete the Case Study: Tonya Archer media activity, which is linked later in this assessment.

Before you begin creating your submission for this assessment, make sure you have worked through the Tonya Archer case study. This will provide the foundational context for the assessment, for which you will be carrying out independent research by using the Internet to complete the following:

• Identify the professional code of ethics for your professional specialty or a specialty that you are interested in.
• With a local hospital in mind (perhaps one you work for), locate the mission, vision, and values statement of that hospital.

After you identify the professional ethics code and the hospital mission, vision, and values statements relevant to your work and interests, it may be useful to complete the following:

• Identify which item in the ethical code you believe is the most important and explain why.
• Name something in the code you would like to see addressed in more depth. Why?
• Which item in the code do you think would be the most challenging to follow and why?
• Does your code make an explicit distinction between what is legal and what is ethical? That is, is the code clear that, while an action may be legal, it may not be ethical?
• Finally, how well does your professional code of ethics align with the mission and values statement of your hospital? Can you imagine a situation in which following one would make it challenging to follow the other?

Instructions

For this assessment you will apply some concepts we have learned in the course, particularly those relating to the basic principles of health care ethics, professional codes of ethics, and values of health care institutions. 

Write a paper that answers the following questions as it relates to the Tonya Archer Case Study:

• What are the most relevant end-of-life issues in health care ethics as they relate to this case?
• What should the hospital do? Should doctors simply keep Tonya on life support, as the parents want? Or, since all medical evidence indicates that Tonya’s brain damage is permanent, should life support be removed?

Support your answer with the following considerations in mind:

• Explain which principles of health care ethics and which moral theory are the best philosophical foundations for your view.
• Is your view supported by your professional code of ethics? If so, explain how. If not, explain what your code gets wrong about a case like this.
• Is your view consistent with the mission statement and values of the hospital you identified in your independent research you conducted to prepare to complete this assessment?
• Would an accrediting body, like the Joint Commission, support your choice? Why or why not?

In your responses to your peers, discuss the probable diagnosis and whether it may affect cardiac performance or cardiac output. Identify if this client is at risk for other pathological conditions such as coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. Explain your rationale, using evidence to support it.

Peers response attached below. Please respond individually.

Based on “Case Study: Fetal Abnormality” and other required topic study materials, write a 750-1,000-word reflection that answers the following questions:

1. What is the Christian view of the nature of human persons, and which theory of moral status is it compatible with? How is this related to the intrinsic human value and dignity?
2. Which theory or theories are being used by Jessica, Marco, Maria, and Dr. Wilson to determine the moral status of the fetus? What from the case study specifically leads you to believe that they hold the theory you selected?
3. How does the theory determine or influence each of their recommendations for action?
4. What theory do you agree with? Why? How would that theory determine or influence the recommendation for action?

Remember to support your responses with the topic of study materials.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

The purpose of this assignment is to interview a pharmacist to learn more about interprofessional collaboration between prescribers and pharmacists. If possible, volunteer to shadow the pharmacist. Discuss the following in your interview:

1. The process of filling a prescription.
2. Common reasons pharmacists call providers to clarify orders.
3. What is on a proper prescription.
4. Common omissions on prescriptions they receive.
5. Medication errors pharmacists encounter.
6. The prior authorization (par) process and common par medications.

Write a 500-1,000 word paper summarizing your experience and what you learned from the pharmacist you interviewed. Reflect on how this information will help your prescription writing. Discuss intercollaboration between pharmacists and prescribers.

You are required to cite three to five sources related to intercollaboration to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Prepare this paper according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Textbook: pp. 94-103, 267-270
• Lesson
• Minimum of 1 article (academic or credible online source)

Apply the following writing resources to your posts:

• Link (library article): Point: Vaccines Save Lives (Links to an external site.) (This link will take you to an overview of vaccines. Click on the title under Related Items in this overview area to access the article. This is a sample pro article.)
• Link (multimedia presentation): Citing References in Text (Links to an external site.)
• Link (website): APA Citation and Writing (Links to an external site.)

Initial Post Instructions

Part 1: Research & Review
Please review the Point: Vaccines Save Lives, an example of a pro article.

Note: The article was pulled from our Chamberlain library’s Points of View Reference Center database. This resource is highly recommended, as it presents many of the topics in the General Education Healthcare field that may be applicable this term. To access the resource from our library website, choose Databases A to Z on the homepage. Locate and click on the Points of View database.  Scroll down to Health & Medicine. You will see a large list of potential topics ranging from Allergies in Schools to Vegetarianism. When you click on a topic (Vaccines, for example), you will see an overview of the topic, as well as points, counterpoints, and a guide to critical analysis.

For your initial post, develop your ideas about a selected topic by conducting an online search to find a recent pro article about your topic. The goal is to find an article that takes a clear pro position. Include the following in your post:

• Name of the article
• Author
• URL
• Brief summary of the article

The article can be an online source from credible websites or an academic resource from the Chamberlain Library. It must be cited in APA format. For pointers on APA citations, please refer to the Chamberlain Library’s Citation and Writing Assistance website (noted in the Required Resources).

Part 2: Application
For the second part of the initial post, address the following:

• Discuss which of the topic generation methods from this week’s lecture worked best for you and why (or did you use an alternate approach?).
• How will you remain objective about your topic?
• Who is your audience?
• Based on the topic development completed so far, brainstorm 3 potential pros for your topic choice.

Follow-Up Post Instructions

Respond to at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Strive to provide constructive criticism that will help your fellow students develop their own topics by asking questions, pointing to additional research, or providing professional and personal examples. Help your fellow peers to brainstorm potential pros for their topics. Since many of the topics we will deal with in this course are controversial, a respectful, professional tone is expected.

Note: If you see that someone has already received feedback from two peers, please choose to help a peer who has yet to obtain feedback.

Writing Requirements

• Minimum of 3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
• Initial Post Length: minimum of 3 college-level paragraphs
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references

Grading