Ethics in Dental Health Care - Assignment Example

? Ethics in Dental Health Care Morals and Ethics Distinction between morals and ethics has been a contentious debate over the decades especially in comparing the two aspects in distinct fields of study. Morals can be defined as standards that are generally accepted as right or wrong in any society while ethics is used to mean more conceptual principles which might appear in a code of behavior expected by the group to which an individual subscribes to (David, 2009). Examples of ethics include: national ethics, family ethics, social, ethics, professional ethics and company ethics. Morals and ethics can be viewed as different in the following dimensions: First, morals describe individual character, while ethics emphasizes a social system whereby morals are applied. According to Janie HYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Janie+B.+Butts%22"& Karen (2005) while an individual’s moral code is usually constant, the ethics he practices can be varying. For instance in a criminal case, the defense lawyer may find murder immoral and reprehensible but his ethics demands the accused party to be defended enthusiastically even if the lawyer knows that his client is guilty. Under such a circumstance the legal ethics overrides personal morals for the purposes of upholding a justice system. Morality is the universal, daily evaluation of whether a given behavior is socially acceptable while ethics is the critical reflection on individual and social morality. For instance, in today’s medical environment abortion is legal as well as ethical but in societal views the act is immoral. In addition, homosexuality is termed as immoral act in the society while some people within the same society view it as ethical on the basis of non-discrimination against a group of people by forbidding them the same rights accorded to heterosexuals. Moreover, ethics are consistent within certain contexts but vary considerably between others while morals are usually unchanging and depict a cross-cutting consistency. The morals are also prone to changes depending on individual radical change in their values and beliefs. Ethics vary depending on profession but individual morals remain constant irrespective of change in profession. For instance, medical ethics vary from legal ethics but individuals in both professions share some moral values. Furthermore, morals are derived from certain traditions in the society and they are more of prescription or mandatory while ethics arise naturally when groups of people share common interest and agree on what to do or not do for purposes of providing guidance others in the same field. People in a given profession enjoy ethics by choice as members of that particular group as opposed to morality whereby morals are imposed by certain authority in the society. Fundamental Reasons behind the Increased Number of Students Compromising Their Morals and Ethics While in Dental School Cheating scandals and impropriety have been affecting dental schools over the recent years. Improprieties in dental schools can be broken down into two: acts committed in clinical work and in didactic courses. Students have engaged in acts of academic dishonesty during didactic courses such as using unreleased national boards questions, copying of another students work and plagiarism (The American Student Dental Association, 2009). Students compromise their ethics while in dental schools because of the following reasons: first, unreasonable graduation requirements and the specificity of clinical procedures on licensure exams. This is witnessed specifically in the clinical care practical. According to Janie HYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Janie+B.+Butts%22"& Karen (2005) when a dental school has strict numbers based requirements, students are compelled to seeking out patients with procedures necessary for their graduation. Cases of students selectively neglecting patients in order to complete graduation requirements have been popular in dental schools. Staff and faculty at large have also contributed to this problem. For instance, the creation of obstacle courses that are loaded with put-downs and insults by staff ultimately defeats the lessons taught in ethics curricula. This leads to creation of cynicism attitudes with the students an act that has been described by psychologists as having positive correlation with cheating in didactic courses (David, 2009). Unethical behaviors demonstrated by professional staffs working in the dental faculties is another reason for the alarming cases of unethical behaviors increasingly exhibited by didactic students. It is well understood that students acquire professional notions and behaviors of acceptable practices through the interactions and observations with staff, faculty and fellow students during training. Therefore, students tend to observe and learn unethical practices undertaken by the staff in the dental school. Absence of punishment or reinforcement measures for those who go against professional ethics during their training is another reason behind the rampant cases violating ethics in dental schools. For instance according to The American Student Dental Association (2009), most students who are caught cheating in exams go scot free. This encourages students to practice dishonesty as the offenders are not punished their dishonesty actions, therefore implying acceptance of the behavior. Possible Ways of Curbing this Growing Trend It is worth noting that increasing trend of unethical practices in dental schools has significant impact to the medical profession and the dental students’ pursuing didactic courses. Dental institutions and examination boards need to recognize and customize the messages send through the spoken and non-spoken hidden curriculum to curb the increasing trends. This will assist dental students in differentiating messages of ethics from professionalism. Second, sensitization of dental students to personally maintain highest standards of academic integrity and encouraging them to report unethical activity and violations of school’s honor code to the appropriate body. Third, the dental school faculty members should personally up hold the code of ethics, enforce it and encourage every student to do the same. Finally, the examination bodies within the dental profession need to create testing environment that uphold the codes of ethics and establish valid and secure examination methodologies that prevent cheating. The Role of Dental Public Health, And That of the Community, In the Ethics of Community-Based Research The dental public health and the community play an instrumental role in ethics of community based research. These include: Dental public health establishes programs that are tailor made for graduate dentists who intends to shape their professionalism in careers related to public health. Through the dental public health programs professional ethics development is instilled to the dental professionals enabling them acquire knowledge on professional code of ethics and an understanding of current ethical and legal issues affecting dental practice in public health sector (Janie HYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Janie+B.+Butts%22"& KarenHYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Karen+L.+Rich%22",HYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Karen+L.+Rich%22" 2005). Second, dental public health facilitates research in the fields of health services and community-based aspects. For instance, evaluation of changes occurring in dentistry as a result of globalization can be researched objectively through administration of appropriate evaluation techniques that factors in communities’ beliefs and values as well ethical norms held by the community members. In addition, this puts into consideration philosophical prepositions held in the community and their impact towards anticipated changes in the way people in a community perceive issues related to oral health. The role of community in the ethics of community based research can be clearly demonstrated in community based participatory research whereby the community is partly or fully involved in the research activity with little or much involvement of professional researchers. The community provides arable environment that is more egalitarian and democratic thus making the research participants ethically aware of the process and what is expected of them (Hardy, 2012). It also provides a greater account of issues of power, rights, values, beliefs and traditions of the community members. In addition, the community provides an ideological rationale in ethics community based research by explicitly establishing value position that involves a commitment to power sharing with the objects of research thus fostering common understanding. Moreover the community offers guidance and recommendations to research ethical issues that may affect the validity and reliability of the research findings in public health issues. Journal Analysis Kass, N. E. (2001). An ethics framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 91(11), 1776-1782. This journal explores the place of ethical principles in the field of public health with significant focus on the ethics framework as applied in public health program. Owing to the nature of activities in the public health field in which all activities must take into consideration the interests of all individuals in attempt to improve the health of populations (Kass, 2001). The content covered in this article is of great significant to the topic public health ethics. The author identifies some of the traditional public health goals underpinned by the ethical principle of social justice, maximum benefits for the target populations, and fair implementation of public programs (Kass, 2001). Public health programs should be focused on the reduction of morbidity or mortality, a phenomenon that supports one of the principles of the ethical practice in public health. The goal for ensuring reduced mortality or morbidity support the principle of discovering of root cause of diseases and establishment of effective strategies to mitigate such causes. The author emphasizes on the dilemmas faced in public health including the potential of infringing on individual liberties in unethical ways (Kass, 2001). As a result, this article justifies the importance of the public health care sector establishing an ethical code of conduct to guide all the public health activities to ensure that they do not undermine the ethical and moral expectations of the society. The subtopic in this article on bioethics reveals that founders of bioethics failed to establish principles that can fit well into the public sector. The author asserts that bioethics principles applied in other areas of health such as medical care cannot be effectively applied to guide specific activities with the public health sector (Kass, 2001). For the example, the medical code of conduct emphasizes on the ethical principle of individual autonomy which may not be a priority in public health because most public health activities revolve around the interests of a population but not an individual as in the case of medical care. The author argues that there is need for development of an ethics framework that can be specifically applied in the context of public health. This is in acknowledgement of the differences in public health values from those of the medical health care sector. According to Kass (2001), public health values morally differ significantly from the values of clinical practice and research activities hence the need to have ethics frameworks for the different field distinct from each other. Due to lack of ethical guidelines for public health practitioners, they are compelled to turn professional morals to guide them in resolving dilemma arising from their practice. Kass (2001), asserts that establishment of a public ethics code is critical if the public health sector was to address social injustices as part of it obligations. This journal article is critical to the issue of ethics in public health because to provide an overview of the public health field, its development, and the various components of the field. The study reveals that despite use of different public health tools in achieving the ultimate goal of reducing mortality and morbidity in public health, the application of such tools raise several ethical issues which can be addressed through establishment of a public health code of conduct (Kass, 2001). This journal article emphasizes on the need for public health programs to be designed and implemented in a way that is able to achieve the specific goals of the public health sector (Kass, 2001). In this case, it is important to identify the public health goals of a proposed program. This allows public health practitioners to monitor and evaluate the success of the programs. In conclusion, the journal explores critical aspects of the public health sectors relevant to the issues covered in this course. References David, C. (2009).Psychological Perspectives on Ethical Behavior And Decision Making. North Carolina, NC: IAP Hardy, L. (2012). Comprehensive Preventive Dentistry. New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Janie B. B & KarenHYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Karen+L.+Rich%22", L., HYPERLINK "http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Karen+L.+Rich%22"R. (2005). Nursing Ethics: Across The Curriculum And Into Practice. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning Kass, N. E. (2001). An ethics framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 91(11), 1776-1782. The American Student Dental Association.(2009).White paper on ethics and professionalism in Dental education. http://www.asdanet.org/uploadedFiles/The_Issues/ASDAWhitePaperFinal2012.pdf. [Accessed on 8th April 8, 2013] Read More