Medicine, Nursing Ethics: Professional Code Of Conduct

Health Care Ethics
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Health Care Ethical Principles
In the field of radiology, like other professions in health care, is guided by a set of principles. These are principles that help the practitioners in making sure they offer their patients the best level of quality care while exercising the highest level of professionalism. They are the guide to what the health care practices ought to follow. The main principles addressed in this paper include the principle of informed consent, the right to refuse treatment and the principle of confidentiality (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett & Garrett, 2013).
Principle of Informed Consent
Long gone are the days when the patients were at the mercy of the health care professionals. Patient centered care is a concept that now guides even the health care polices in the industry. This means that the patients have to be consulted whenever a decision on their health is being made. Health care professionals no longer have the power to make the decisions for the patients only for the patients to say that they were not comfortable with whatever decisions was made. Health affects the patient in more ways than one (Macklin 2018). Making decision which affect the treatment plans of the patient has to be ran through the patient for them to be in a position to decide what they want to achieve as the outcomes. It is important to note that the patient much like the health care professionals have objectives as to what they want to achieve for their health outcomes. Even the regimen that the patient is to be put on has to be discussed with the patient (The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2018). Where it is changed the patient has to be informed about what happened to the first trials and then informed of the choices that are available to them (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett & Garrett, 2013). This also includes the payment plans such as the coverage under their insurance policies among others. Health care decisions are very complex and they affect not just the patient but also the parents and friends and the financial status of the entire group including the hospital (The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2018). As such, it is no longer allowed that doctors and nurses come up with medical plans that affect the patient and go ahead with the same, in the assumption that they are the ones that have the medical technical knowhow and thus will make the best decision (Macklin 2018). This was a common misconception in the past, where health care providers would take the mandate of making the decisions for their patients in the assumption that they know best. This is an aspect that is now guided by the principle of informed consent, where the decision has to come from the patient.
The role of the health care providers in this case is to inform the patient of the various choices they have relative to the treatment plans, drug trials, impacts of the medication, significant side effects of the trials or the drugs, the financial implication and even the expected outcomes (The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2018). Where possible the patient may also be given the details of past trails or research on the treatment plan or the medication among other ...