Reflection on Experience Studying Postgraduate Bioethics Course - Personal Statement Example

Your full March Reflection on Experience Studying Postgraduate Bioethics Medical learning has been my passion since I opted for this field. Bioethics has been my favorite field of study, and the wish to learn more made me attend many postgraduate courses. The bioethics postgraduate course that I am going to describe in this paper has been a wonderful experience for me as I learnt many personal and professional ethical considerations in this course. The most important lesson for me was that reflection upon ethical considerations form a basis for many clinical judgments and decisions that critically affect the life quality of the patients involved. In this paper, I am going to described what I learnt during this course, and how my learning experience was in general. The course that I attended taught me many important things which are going to help me in my personal and professional life. I learnt that it is important to stay within the ethical boundaries while making clinical judgment. In order to provide people the best quality of healthcare services, physicians make use of the medical knowledge supported by their own clinical judgment. But I know that physicians, sometimes, have to face conflicts among what they feel is correct and ethical. This is where legal and ethical issues interrelate. Consider a physician who has to make decision about a mental patient. If he sends him home, he is giving him the independence to live, but is participating in posing risk to the patient and others around him. If he decides to send him to the asylum, then he is snatching away his independence but is reducing risk that the patient can pose to himself and others. Thus, I learnt that the physician has to face a conflict between what is legal and what is ethical. The course changed my views about many important aspects of ethical considerations in medicine and practice. I would like to mention patient advocacy first of all. In healthcare practice, advocacy puts forward a research-based framework that clinicians use as a guide in their practice (Barkway 120-121). It is about empowering the patients and enabling them to know their rights. Previously, I would deem the physician’s decision as full and final, but after this course, I came to know that it is important to empower a father with a child with Down’s syndrome to navigate through the healthcare system and coordinate different specialists to engage in his child’s care. I learnt that a mother who has a physically disabled child in her womb should be informed about the situation and asked for her consent about the next step. Family members of a patient must ask for double-checking of all tests in which the physician spots an error. Hence, the patient and the family should be empowered to know about the disease and make decisions in sometimes erroneous healthcare system. Patient advocates present to patients a high quality framework in which services are better managed and medical errors are constantly kept in check. Patient advocacy also involves healthcare professionals to make steps like collecting educational materials for the patients to make them better informed about a disease, and researchers to develop such tools that help the physicians in drawing out their patient preferences. I studied the research of Bu and Jezewski (101-110) who used Walker and Avants method of concept analysis to study patient advocacy, and found that the concept involves protecting patient’s autonomy; acting as a representative of patients; and, practicing social justice in service provision. I also deem it important to state that I learnt many personal and professional ethics in this course. I learnt that the physician interacting with the patient should be honest and straightforward, and should deal with the patient in a candid fashion. The patient should also be honest with the physician. The patient’s consent should be considered before sharing, selling or disclosing his personal information. I leant that the patient’s privacy should be maintained by blocking unauthorized access to his health records and personal data. I keenly learnt about informed consent in this course. Informed Consent is about having the capable patient take part in making decisions about his healthcare and treatment process (Wear 10). The patient should be well informed about all the circumstances, and his wishes and judgment has to be considered by the practitioner. I want to quote an example here to elaborate my understanding of bioethics in this course. It is a doctor’s job to give the best medical advice and health care services to his patients. He must inform the patient about the pros and cons of a treatment like taking an IV, especially during critical conditions like labor, and should respect his decision afterwards. I learnt that where patient advocacy is necessary, patient autonomy is also very important. A patient has the right to refuse an IV, and has the right to demand privacy of his data. Health professionals required to take informed consent from the patient, and inform him that he can withdraw from a service at any point. I also learnt that if a patient is young by age, or is not in his perfect mental condition, then his refusal for an IV is not deemed legally fit. In that case, his next of kin is given the power of attorney, and a decision is made accordingly. Otherwise, in perfect mental condition, doctors are legally bound to respect the patient’s decision about refusing an IV. Hence, I learnt that it is legally incorrect for doctors and nurses to force a patient, physically or verbally, to enter a treatment like an IV, if he does not wish to. The patient can sue the doctor/nurse in the court of law for forceful treatment. Thus, patient autonomy has been a primary lesson for me in which I learnt, say, how to inform the patient about the pros and cons of taking an IV during critical conditions, and to respect their decision whatsoever. One of the most important thing I learnt in this course that I guess will help me in my professional life is that there are four ethical considerations that must be taken into account when counseling with minors: (1) counselor competence, (2) informed consent and a minor’s ability to enter into a contractual relationship, (3) confidentiality, and (4) child abuse reporting. Counselor competence requires that the counselor should have suitable experience and training in dealing with minors. Next, informed consent is about enabling the patient in taking part in making decisions about his healthcare. Confidentiality is also a crucial ethical issue. Sometimes what is illegal in the eyes of court is correct ethically. Lastly, child abuse reporting to authorities becomes an ethical consideration. I learnt that reporting child abuse is ethically mandatory for all clinicians, so that the criminal gets arrested. The course also changed my decision about ethical principles in clinical practice. I learnt these very important principles: (1) Beneficence: This principle is based on the values and standards that guide the physician to make a decision that is in the favor of the patient with the intention of doing good to him. (2) Least Harm: When a physician has to make a choice out of options neither of which is beneficial for the patient, then he has to choose the option that will do least harm to the patient. (3) Respect for Autonomy: This is about granting the patient the authority to make decisions about his healthcare since he is the one who is most informed about his life style, routine, body, and his comfort zone. (4) Justice: This principle states that physicians make ethical decisions that are fair to the patient and all those who are involved in the treatment process. The decisions should be made on logical bases. I am also glad that I learnt many ethical theories that will definitely help me in the field of bioethics. (1) Deontology: This theory focuses on that physicians should stick to their responsibilities when they are facing a dilemma in making ethical decisions. This will help them make consistent decisions while adhering to their ethical obligations. (2) Utilitarianism: This theory helps the physician to make choices whose consequences are better for the patient. He will make a decision that will yield greatest benefit to all involved. (3) Rights. This theory respects and protects the rights of people as enforced by the society itself. (4) Casuist. This theory enables the physicians to make decision about an ethical dilemma by comparing it to similar dilemmas and their consequences that might have happened in the past. (5) Virtue. This theory is about judging a person through his values and standards rather than by his actions. Putting it all together, the study of bioethics brings with it many legal and ethical issues that have to be considered by health practitioners while dealing with their patients and making decisions about their treatment. During the course, I learnt that ethical guidelines and professional values hold great significance while making clinical judgment. Ethical theories and principles are important to predict the outcome of decisions in the context of the patients’ well-being. Hence, this course has been a great learning experience for me. Works Cited Barkway, Patricia. Psychology for Health Professionals. Elsevier, Australia, 2009. Print. Bu, Xiaoyan, and Mary Ann Jezewski. “Developing a Mid-Range Theory of Patient Advocacy Through Concept Analysis.” Journal of Advanced Nursing 57.1(2007): 101-110. Print. Wear, Stephen. Informed Consent: Patient Autonomy and Physician Beneficence within Clinical Medicine. USA: Springer, 1992. Print. Read More