Ethics Paper: Treatment of an Uninsured Homeless Patient

Treatment of an uninsured homeless patient
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Treatment of an uninsured homeless patient
Major and minor ethical choices confront healthcare professionals and administrators each day as they provide health care to patients with different values living in this multicultural and pluralistic society. Whenever there is confusion regarding what one needs to do, ethical principles provide vital moral guides. This essay shows how the three main ethical principles of nonmaleficence, justice and beneficence are applied to my work as a healthcare professional in treating a patient who is homeless and uninsured.
Nonmaleficence
This ethical principle requires of a healthcare professional that he or she not deliberately cause any injury or harm to patients through acts of omission or commission. If a healthcare professional inflicts an unreasonable or careless risk of harm upon a patient, then this would be considered as negligent (Mitchell, 2014). Nonmaleficence asserts the need for medical competence on the part of the healthcare professional. With regard to the treatment of a patient who is homeless and uninsured, applying this principle means that the healthcare professional would be committed to protecting this patient from any harm. Offering an appropriate standard of care which reduces or averts the risk of harm to the patient is supported by laws of society as well as by people’s commonly held moral beliefs (Ivanov & Oden, 2013). In essence, the healthcare professional will ensure that the medical procedure that she conducts on the homeless uninsured patient does not harm or injure this patient. This way, the healthcare professional would have effectively applied the do no harm principle.
Justice
In healthcare, justice is defined mainly as a type of fairness. It is the notion that the benefits and burdens of experimental or new treatments have to be distributed equally amongst every group within the society (Ivanov & Oden, 2013). This principle also requires that procedures need to be fair to everyone who is involved. Abimbola (2013) noted that a lot of the disparities that people experience are due to social or natural lottery and the individuals affected are not at fault; hence the society shoul...