Legal and Ethical Principles in Care Delivery System - Essay Example

it is important for the patients to know their rights involved in the delivery of care to prevent misconduct and malpractices that can lead to harm. In cases of malpractice and misconduct during the delivery of care, the patients need to report to the relevant authorities for appropriate actions to be undertaken (Szalados 2007, p. 318). The case study was presented in an effort to exploring the legal, ethical and professional conducts surrounding it that entail confidentiality, advocacy, accountability, and consent. Thus, the paper will analyze the four legal and ethical principles in the care delivery system in accordance with the case study. Ethical theory, legal issues, roles of the parties involved, and relevant laws will be discussed under legal and ethical topics as well as the examination of the ethical decision-making incorporated.

Ethical theory

The philosophy of ethics has attracted the attention of many people, including researchers and experts in various fields of knowledge. In medicine, just as in sociology and other related disciplines, the term has been widely used to define appropriate behavior of nurses and other operating department practitioners while executing their mandates (Van De Camp, Vernooij-Dassen, Grol & Bottema, 2004, p. 698).

Owing to its wide application in different fields of knowledge, the term ethics has been defined differently by different people depending on their areas of specialization and contexts in question (Savage, Chilingerian & Powell, 2005, p. 21). A lot of medical literature is in agreement with the definition provided of ethics being the philosophical discipline that studies how nurses and other operating department practitioners are expected to behave, or how to determine between right and wrong while interacting with others, especially with patients (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013, p. 36). Operating department practitioners are expected to uphold their ethical standards to ensure that their actions are in line with the ethical standards specified in the guiding laws and regulations set by various medical bodies.