Ethical Consequences Of Disciplinary Practice

Ethical Principles Life is all about the decisions we make. In fact, the average individual makes 35,000 decision each and every day (Hoomans, 2015). For the healthcare professional, decisions are founded on ethical theories with the pillars of beneficence, non-maleficence and justice as the tools for decision making (Morrison & Furlong, 2014). The ability of health care professionals to apply these theories determines whether or not an appropriate response is achieved in healthcare situations. Unfortunately, at times a professional who has consistently violated the policy for ethical conduct through poor decisions must be disciplined.
Determining an Ethics Breach Occurred Prior to any disciplinary action, it must be determined that unethical

For example, in a case such as a provider having multiple events of sharing patient confidential information the patient’s best interests have clearly been violated. The sharing of such data is a HIPPA violation and against the law (American Medical Association, 2016). Discipline cannot be avoided because of the impact it has in many areas. For example, ethical misconduct can have negative consequences ranging from embarrassment and loss of prestige and license for the professional as well as legal ramification for the organization (Institute for Local Government, 2013). Due to these inevitable consequences of the providers action, disciplinary action must be taken.
Disciplinary Action Taken As a manager, our obligation is to the patient as well as the stakeholder and disciplinary action should be in the best interests of each of these entities. Action which only serves the patient but does not likewise benefit the stakeholders falls short. The discipline employed must result in the greatest benefit for the greatest number of individuals (Morrison & Furlong, 2014).

MODULE 1 – ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Had this been a situation where the provider had not agreed to the code of ethics, the outcome would have varied significantly since it is more challenging be held to a standard you did not agree to. Nonetheless since the provider had agreed to a code of ethics the recommendation is for the provider to enroll in a ProBe (Professional/Problem-Based Ethics) course (Purcell, 1977). Such a course focuses on healthcare ethics and would serve as a refresher course as well as provide practical applications of ethics issues. The role of professional disciplinary action should be to eliminate harm to the patient (non-maleficence), to help the professional advance for his/her own good (benefience) and for all occurances of ethics violations to be treated fair and like cases alike (justice). Only under the worst situations should an individual’s employment be recinded. Furthermore, refresher courses on ethics have proven to be highly effective in aiding the healthcare professional in making future ethical choices over the long-term (Purcell, 1977). It is the desire of the facility that the provider be given the necessary aids to equip them return to their status as a valuable member of the organization. Nonetheless, should the practitioner violate the code of ethics after renewed ethics training terminaiton of employment would