Patient complaint

Medical Ethics
Name
Professor
Institution
Date
Medical ethics
We all get sick! When we get sick, we go to doctors and healthcare providers to seek medical assistance. When one goes to a hospital, there is a general assumption that one is in the safe hands. Doctors are believed to professionals who have undergone formal education relating to matters of their practice and have successfully passed formal examinations and relevant tests pertaining to matters of their ability and knowledge. This might not always be the case. Before the nineteenth century, there was lose regulation on who could practice medicine and the form and level of education that was necessary to practice medicine. Professionalization of medicine in the nineteenth century led to the creation of institutions and establishment of mechanisms to regulate medical practice CITATION Rim90 \l 1033 (Apple, 1990). For proper practice of any profession, there is need for the adherence of set ethical conducts. These ethics are laid down to ensure there is discipline in the said profession. Medical ethics is a combination of principles used in the application of values and judgments to the practice of medicine. Medical ethics are established to safeguard the interests of both patients and physicians. A physician in his line of duty have to recognize basic responsibility towards patients, the society, other professionals, and most important of to self. Ethical condes of conduct are not basically laws but general standards of behavior meant to define the behaviors of physicians CITATION Rob97 \l 1033 (Veatch, 1997). A patient died after developing injuries in the nose bridge caused by a BiPAP machine. Bilevel positive airway pressure machine provides breathing support to people suffering from sleep apnea. The latter is a medical condition whereby the affected persons develops breathing problems and stops breathing at intervals during the night. The BiPAP machine helps assist people with sleep apnea to receive the correct air pressure that is adequate to sustain normal breathing patterns throughout the whole night. However, use of the machine comes with several side effects. It might also be problematic to a patient to use the machine. The above said patient died maybe because nurses delayed in offering adequate medical care. It is the duty of physicians to accord patients with maximum medical attention. In respect to th above case, what could the nurses have done to save the patient? Could the patient have survived if the nurses could have adhered to medical ethics? How effective are the medical ethics in the practice of medicine? Many a times that complaints have been lodged concerning errors caused by medical practitioners. Some are beyond practice while others are errors, which can easily be avoided CITATION Jam00 \l 1033 (Torr, 2000). Autonomy as an ethic is a personal rule free from both controlling interfering forces and personal limitations that prevents meaningful choice making. Respect and value of autonomy is fundamental guideline of clinical ethics. Autonomy allows patients to make their own independent choices. Physicians should advice patients on relevant matters to ensure that they understand medical situations. Nurses should have demonstrated autonomy and presented to the patient all treatment options available. They should have gone beyond other interfering forces and provide preventive measures to the patient. A ben...