Laws and Ethics for Paramedics - Coursework Example

Topic: Laws and Ethics for Paramedics Name: Registration No: Institution: Tutor: Date of Submission: Introduction Paramedics are important when there is the need to respond to emergency health situations in the community in a number of ways based on the case that needs to be attended. The increase in complexity of paramedics in terms of assessment, provision of treatment and management of patients’ health has resulted into the need to understand legal, ethical and organizational requirements that need to be observed (Steer, 2007). In addition, paramedics experience extreme physical and emotional difficulties during their activities while issues arising from difficulties are based on legal and ethical roles they have to play. The ethical and legal responsibilities are related to matter regarding duty of care towards a particular patient, negligence of treatment, consent of the patient towards treatment and ensuring confidentiality of the information obtained from the patient. This paper focuses on legal and ethical issues that need to be observed by paramedics so that they can perform their functions in compliance with these regulations. It also enables understanding how professionals involved in paramedics practice can implement these laws and ethics so that their activities are performed within the requirements of the law. 1. Laws relating to paramedic care 1.1. Duty of Care Duty of care is the responsibility of an individual to exercise reasonable care so that the interest of others is met, such as ensuring those who are undergoing suffering are assisted and additional suffering is prevented through avoidance of omission of duties to be performed (Buckner, 2000). In the case that involved Donoghue v Stevenson, Donoghue sued Stevenson due to his failure to honour the duty of care while selling a soft drink to Donoghue when it was found that there was a snail in the drink. Donoghue successfully sued Stevenson because it was believed that Stevenson needed to have provided her with the duty of care. As trained professionals in paramedics, those involved in the practice are required to ensure a duty of care towards the health needs of people under their care with more concern than that of the public. Theoretically, it is required that paramedics must perform their practices with non-maleficence and beneficence. This implies that they must ensure they do not cause harm while non-maleficence means they must be active in doing their tasks in unselfish manner so that they demonstrate their concern for the needs of others (Cameron, Jelinek, Kelly Murray & Brown, 2009). In order for a paramedic to ensure he or she complies with this paramedic law, it is required that the paramedic must act with swiftness whenever there is an emergency situation and perform various duties within his or her capability such as providing the right medication that meets medical needs of the patient (Conner, 2007). In addition, it is required that the paramedic must not be negligent in his or her duties so that damages that are likely to affect a patient can be avoided. This is because, failure to observe duty of care can result into prosecution of the paramedics if there is evidence that the paramedic did not act in a situation that required duty of care to the affected person. 1.2. Observing patient’s consent Consent refers to the willingness of a person to allow a particular action to be performed for the purpose of assisting the patient overcomes a particular difficult situation such as illness. In paramedics, it involves the willingness of the patient to be provided with medications and comply with the instructions of the paramedics’ professional so that a particular medical process is implemented in the effort to help the patient. Consent also involves the ability of the patient to determine the types of treatments that he or she prefers. There is a close association between autonomy and consent (Eburn, 2007). This is because, it is required that the patient must consent to be provided with treatment, provided the patient has the competence to do so. This implies that paramedics have to obtain the consent of the patient before providing them with treatment. During the process of providing treatment to a patient, the patient must be deemed to be autonomous in the process of making decisions. The ability of a patient to be autonomous will be determined by the paramedics. Here exist a various types of consent that paramedics must be aware of. For instance, when a patient positions the arm in a manner that shows readiness to be injected, it is an assumption of an implied consent to the treatment process (Eburn, 2010). Consent can also be verbal or written. Validity of consent involves making informed choices and based on voluntary of a person who has a legal capacity to do so. This implies that in medical practice, the patient must be made aware of the choices and they should not be threatened to make particular choices. In the case that involved Rogers v Whitaker, relevant information regarding risks were not provided to the patient, indicating that the patient was not informed effectively about the risks, and consequently did not have the understanding of the complications that would result after the medical procedure. After it was observed that there were complications, it was found that the surgeon was negligent due to the failure to explain the risks that were associated with the surgery before the operation was done. However, under particular circumstances, the patient will not be able to have the ability to consent to being provided with medical services provided by the paramedics (Frampton, 2005). For instance, in a case where the patient is unconscious, incapacitated, minor age or under the influence of drugs, paramedics do not need to seek the consent of the patient. In such conditions, paramedics are required to apply the doctrine of necessity by providing the necessary treatment that ensures the patient is able to undergo recovery.in most cases, if the wishes of the patient are known through orders such as avoidance of resuscitation or information indicating that they are not willing to be provided with a particular kind of treatment, it is recommended that the paramedics must respect these wishes (HPC, 2008). It would be important to make ethical decision if the condition that the patient is being treated for is not similar to the one that restriction of resuscitation order exists for. For instance, if a person who has terminal cancer is involved in a car accident and has restriction of resuscitation order regarding the cancer, during the attempts to save their lives in the process of providing treatment to injuries resulting from the accident, restriction of resuscitation covers this. Generally, the law od consent states that when a paramedics is in the process of providing assistance to a person, there should be a demonstration of willingness of the person to be provided with a particular kind of treatment (Luck & Townsend, 2009). If the person does not have the reasoning ability to make the decision such as in the case of young children, the paramedics must use their judgement to make decisions related to their service in assisting the patient so that the patient becomes normal. 2. Ethics Relating to paramedics care 2.1. Confidentiality of patient’s information and medical information This is the ethical requirement that paramedics’ professionals must treat information with confidentiality and avoid sharing the information with people from outside locations who are not associated with the purpose of information related to the needs of the patient. Information that paramedics need to keep confidential is information relating to family history of the patient during treatment (Murdoch, Gaskin and Tippett, 2006). Furthermore, paramedics are required to keep diagnosis results confidential and ensure they use the results for the benefit of the patient and not causing humiliation to the patient in the public. This is because during the provision of treatment, the patient may share some information that are he or she would not like to be known to the public but wishes that the paramedic should know for the purpose of providing treatment. For instance, during emergency situations, the patient is subjected to vulnerability due to the illness or injury and paramedic staff are able to access confidential information related to family and legal information relating to the patient (Steer, 2007). It is recommended that paramedics must ensure they treat this information with confidentiality, implying that only the information that is needed to manage the patient’s condition should be given to the right people who need to know the information such as those involved in provision of treatment to the patients. It is considered unjust to disclose private information with those who have nothing to do with the treatment provided to the patient. However, it is recommended that when the act of keeping patient information can result into a public peril, paramedics are allowed to disclose the information for the purpose of protecting the interest of the public (Buckner, 2000). This was observed in a case that involved Tarasoff where a psychiatrist was found guilty of keeping confidential information about the intention of the patient to kill a friend but the psychiatrist did not provide warning and the patient continued with the threats. This is because; the psychiatrist and the staff were required to warn the third party about the intention of the patient but they did not do so. 2.2. Code of Conduct of respect, professionalism, responsibility, accountability It is required that paramedics must ensure they respect the dignity of the patients during the process of providing medical assistance by ensuring they are treated with respect and are not subjected to humiliating conditions such as mistreatment and injuries (Cameron, Jelinek, Kelly, Murray & Brown, 2009). For instance, during the process of transporting patients from one location to another, patients should be carried with care so that they are not subjected to discomfort which aggravates their current situation. They should also ensure they use the right facilities aimed at achieving recovery of the patients. During the process of discharging their duties in paramedics, the professionals are required to exercise to implement their professional training skills and show competence in the manner in which they perform their tasks (Conner, 2007). In the process of providing medical assistance to the affected people, it is required that they use the right procedure during diagnosis, as well as performing the right procedures during the process of providing First Aid to the patients. In addition, during the process of providing paramedics’ assistance to the people, it is recommended that the right drugs should be used to provide medication to the patients based on the advice of the expert so that they can result into quick recovery of the patients. When the paramedics are overwhelmed with tasks, it is recommended that they should delegate their tasks to volunteers and other people in the surrounding area so that more recovery rates can be achieved. In addition, paramedics are required to be responsible for the health and safety of patients in the process of providing their services to affected individuals (Eburn, 2007). This can be achieved by ensuring they observe the safety of patients in an accident environment such as unconscious people who are likely to be exposed to harsh environmental conditions such as rain and sunlight. This implies that they must come up with methods of ensuring they are protected from conditions that could cause more harm to them while they are provided with medical attention. Conclusion This paper presents a number of legal and ethical requirements that paramedics must observe while ensuring the recovery of patients is achieved. The main legal requirement discussed is the need to ensure the paramedics exercise duty of care by ensuring the needs of the patient are addressed and the focus of the services are targeted towards recovery of the patient. In ethical requirements, the most important ethical requirement observed is that need to observe confidentiality of the information provided by the patient during the process of providing medical assistance o the patient. It is found that these legal and ethical requirements ensure the rights of the patient are observed and paramedics’ team conduct their activities within the law as well as demonstrate professionalism in their activities. References Buckner, F. (2000). Where the Public Peril Begins: 25 Years After TARASOFF. The Journal of Legal Medicine, 21(2). Cameron, P. Jelinek, G. Kelly, A. Murray, L. Brown, A. (2009). Textbook of Adult Emergency Medicine. Sydney, Churchill Livingstone. Conner, J. (2007). Practice Makes Perfect – Disclosure of patient records. Emergency Nurse 15(6), 18-19. Eburn, M. (2007) Ambulance Service of NSW v Worley; further legal lessons for the emergency services. Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care, 5(2). Eburn, M. (2010). Emergency Law. Sydney, Australia: The Federation Press. Frampton, A. (2005). Reporting of gunshot wounds by doctors in emergency departments: A duty or a right? Some legal and ethical issues surrounding breaking patient confidentiality. Emergency Medicine Journal, 22, 84-86. HPC (2008) Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics. Your Duties as a Registrant. London: Health Professions Council. Luck, M. Townsend, R. (2009). Protective jurisdiction, patient autonomy and paramedics: the challenges of applying the NSW Mental Health Act. Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care 7(4). Murdoch J, Gaskin M, Tippett V. (2006). Rural and remote paramedics expanded scope of practice, paramedic survey Brisbane: Australian Centre for Pre-hospital Research, University of Queensland, Australia Steer, B. (2007) Paramedics, consent and refusal - are we competent? Journal of Emergency Primary Health care, 5(1), 1-10. Read More