Ethical Values and Ethical Dilemmas in Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy entails the analysis and treatment approaches that develops, recovers and also maintains continuous work and living skills of the individuals who experience cognitive, physical and mental challenges or disorders. Occupation therapy is greatly applied in clinical practice. The clinical application results in several ethical values and also dilemmas (William & Sparkman, 2013).
Clinical ethics results in an ethical decision making process during clinical practices. Clinical ethics enables physicians to understand and address the ethical issues. Effective clinical practice requires adequate understanding of ethical issues like; confidentiality, patients’ rights, informed consent, truth telling, and end of life care. The clinical ethical values are based on the moral principles which are; beneficence, fairness, non-maleficence, and autonomy respect. Clinical practitioners uphold confidentiality on the health issues of a patient. The record of the patients should not be accessed by unauthorized persons. Patients’ rights entail ethical value that ensures fairness to the employees. It is the right of a patient to be informed off the medical processes that he/she is undergoing. Truth telling is a clinical ethics that enhances understanding of patients. Patients should be informed on the most appropriate medication for their ailments. Informed consent entails getting the authority of the patient on any medical procedure. The patient must approve any medication given to him or her. Clinical practitioners must ensure proper end of life care to the patients. This is through the hospice program that effectively cares for patients who are terminally ill or at the end of life stage (William & Sparkman, 2013).
Ethical dilemmas are normally illustrated through clinical questions. For instance, can patients demand for extra medical care, if physician illustrates that additional curative therapy is not beneficial? It is the right of patients to demand for medical care, and also it is the responsibility of the physician to be truthful. This ethical dilemma can be solved if the physical or counselor informs the patient truthfully that the medical condition cannot be further treatment. The physician can also recommend end of life or hospice care to the patient (William & Sparkman, 2013).
References
Willard and Sparkman. (2013). Occupational Therapy. NY: LWW.
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