Professional Ethics

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Professional Ethics
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Glossary of terms

• Autonomy- persons self reliance, independence,
  self-contained ability to decide
• Beneficence- doing of good, charity
• Bioethics- ethical issues in biology/healthcare
• Common morality- socially approved norms of human
  conduct, common sense, tradition
• Confidentiality- health related info should not
  be revealed to others, privacy
• Consequentialism- worth of action depends on
  consequences
• Duties- obligations by moral bonds
• Ethics- systematic study of rightness/wrongness
  of human conduct

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More terms

• Fidelity- observance of promises or duties
• justice- equitable , fair
• Moral principles- general, universal guide to
  action
• Moral rights-individual- basis of moral
  principles
• Moral virtue- trait of character-accordance w/
  morals
• Morals- generally accepted customs, conduct
• Nonmaleficence- ethical principle- high value
  avoiding harm to others
• Professional ethic- publicly displayed ethical
  conduct of a profession
• Professional etiquette- attitudes of a profession
• Rights- justified claims- legal or moral
• Values- ideals, customs of a society
• Veracity- duty to tell truth and avoid deception
• Virtue- trait socially valued

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Professional Ethic

• Involves the right to privacy, dignity and the
  truth
• encounter conflicting value or belief systems
  compromise patient care
• Make choices depending on moral principles of
  justice and beneficence, virtues as compassion
  and caring and duties like honesty and loyalty to
  patients and doctors
• Play critical supportive role between physician
  and patient- meet established standards
• Meet established standards that support emotional
  and physical needs of patients
• A professional ethic is one of several accepted
  criteria that serve to distinguish the
  profession-code
• System of ethics overlaps laws and morals

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Ethical evaluations

• Codes serve the profession by providing a
  detailed operational blueprint of norms
• Review code of ethics- when can confidential info
  be shared??
• Do the principles that make up the code take into
  consideration the role of human values?
• Professional etiquette-not confused w/ prof.
  ethics-polite is not the same as rules of
  conduct.
• How do you recognize an ethical dilemma?
• ID problem
• Develop alternate solutions
• Select best solution
• Defend your selection- explain basis for your
  ethical decision

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Ethical Theories

• Principles that tell us what actions are
  right/wrong
• 1. consequentialism- right/wrong-consequences-
  decisions on pts- produce good effect, do no
  potential harm
• 2. nonconsequentialism- more to characteristics
  of our actions beyond consequences- never to lie-
  act of lying is morally wrong in society
• Social contract theory- relationship of rad tech
  and patient- recognize expectations of one
  another and act accordingly.
• Ethics of care- actions should not be examined as
  isolated events- context of specific situations-
  focus on moral skills as kindness, sensitivity,
  attentiveness, tact, patience and reliability-
  moral competence.
• Rights-based ethics- based on human rights-
• Legal- claims founded in legal principles
• Moral- moral principles
• A right carries with it a DUTY- obligation on
  individual, group, institution- our moral bond
  and interdependence on each other

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Theories contd.

• Principle-based ethics- principlism- use of moral
  principles as basis for action.
• Moral principles are universal guides to action-
  derived from moral truths-
• Beneficence- doing good
• Nonmaleficence- avoid doing harm
• In addition- justice, autonomy, veracity and
  fidelity
• Virtue based ethics- includes the character of
  each person caring, faith, trust , hope,
  compassion, courage and fidelity- Princ
  2-provide services to humanity with full respect
  for the dignity of mankind.
• Examples Case 1-6