Caregiver's Ethics in the Health Care Setting - Research Paper Example

 ETHICS This is a case of ethics in the health care setting. An ethical breach exists in that the health care worker did not report possible child abuse by a daycare provider. The daycare provider was present when the child had their bones broken by a person undetermined in the case, and the child returned to his mother this way—the mother brought the child to the health care facility. The ethical issues can be found by the reader actively in the way the case was treated. “The child’s mother is visibly upset and states that she had picked up the child from day care and noticed the child crying. The child was admitted to the hospital for further care with the child’s mother at her side. The emergency room physician determined that it was not child abuse and, therefore, should not be reported” (Case, 2009). Confidentiality was not balanced properly against the need to properly report child abuse. Ethical issues This is a case of ethics because the health care staff neglected the child in the health care setting. The child was also possibly abused by the daycare center. Some tend to think of child abuse as more a singular concept that is not clearly associated with neglect. But they should know that neglect is a serious issue faced by many children and not one that is relegate to the sidelines in terms of active participation and counseling advocacy. “If one compares the literature on various types of child maltreatment, it will become obvious that there is a dearth of information on the concept of child neglect, despite the fact that a large number of children are neglected each year” (Tower, 2002). Some people are mistaken and do not really think about how children interacting with strangers could be a continuation or extension of abuse from their parents, rather than a sign of risk for the child. But in this situation of the case, it is the daycare worker who may be guilty of child abuse. The ethics are complicate in this case, though because of the concept of client confidentiality and what it means to health care workers. Confidentiality raises issues between the ethical and legal implications of a relationship between a client and a practitioner as well as between other groups within the nursing, health care, and other environments of interest in terms of the client and engagement and the client worker relationship, in which ethics should take precedence in cases in which a client is not a threat to anyone. It remains difficult to maintain confidentiality at times, and attention must be paid to the fact that people should disclose this information later even if the conditions do not seem to be ones that will adversely affect the client. Although privacy and confidentiality are not exactly the same thing, this report must state that information shared to help resolve the issues faced by the client is productive and does not fall under the auspices of confidentiality, because it is a natural sort of dialogue between professionals who are in a helping relationship with the client. There is the fine line to be drawn in certain situations of client/practitioner confidentiality as well as confidentiality between practitioners and confidentiality in cases like this, which involve possible child abuse. In some cases, the client has a right to confidentiality, but it may be less important to the client and worker relationship that she/he has than the rights of others whom the client may harm. “In the US, federal laws governing the nature and confidentiality of mental health records may be overridden by more stringent state laws, so practice can vary from state to state” (Guido, 2006). This is an important aspect of practice. Personal values Serious conflicts exist between my personal values and the decisions made in this case. I am against child abuse and therefore am for the reporting and especially the questioning of the mother about daycare. I know that if my child were in daycare and returned to me with broken legs, I would want the issue reported and I would want someone to communicate with me about it. I have seen how child abuse and neglect in ways that tend to work in cycles in families, and that people effectively treat before the youth in question is permanently emotionally damaged by abuse and may have the likelihood of her/his continuing this cycle of abuse and neglect. Therefore, it is important in an active way for counseling and therapeutic relationship professionals to have a clear stand on what parental roles should be, and in which boundaries are in this sense when they are dealing with these issues in the counseling relationship. Different setting From my view, in a different setting, such as a psychiatrist’s office, the situation would be totally different, and the focus would be on the practitioner who did not follow up on the broken legs of this eight year old child. In therapy and counseling people can also focus on the parenting as well as the child in terms of child abuse treatment. This is an application of knowledge to the parent or set of parents as well as the professional in the helping relationship considering issues of child abuse and neglect. “Parents are expected to understand and adapt to developmental needs and to explain the rules they impose. They must guide and control, keeping in mind the child’s need to mature and gain autonomy. The parents provide models, not only of behavior but of the use of authority” (Tower, 2002). Some parents may not mean to be abusive by following the converse of this and what really amounts to be the converse of neglect, by not letting their children form necessary independence, and these should be addressed by the mental health professional. Personal organization The professional nurse also must treat child neglect as well as abuse as a sensitive issue deserving respect. I have seen in an advocacy program that the goal to the program would be to reduce levels of violence at home, in schools, and therefore in communities. People should implement the best program with a focus on balancing these issues. “An abused child may become depressed. He or she may withdraw, think of suicide or become violent. An older child may use drugs or alcohol, try to run away or abuse others” (Judson & Harrison, 2010). When this author worked as an EMT the organization for which we worked had many domestic violence calls in which EMTs assisted the police, and in many of these cases in terms of nursing principles, I was able to do tasks such as empathize with the client and also provide care. In many of these domestic disputes, in many cases, there were also cases of child abuse going on. Additionally, we did our best to work with police on this aspect and report the child abuse to social services when there were obvious signs of it, which did include cases such as the one responded to, with fractures. Often adults would abuse their small children and not even realize that they were doing it, breaking their bones because they are so small that they were very guilty and often there was no attachment between parent and child, in terms of their affect and behavior toward each other. Because of this, I did not understand the worker in the case not reporting this abuse. BIBLIOGRAPHY Tower, C.C. (2002). Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect. New York: Allyn and Bacon. Guido, G.W. (2006). Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Judson, K. & Harrison, C. (2010). Law & Ethics for Medical Careers (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Child abuse (2009). National Institutes of Health. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/childabuse.html Case study (2009). Read More