10 Evaluation Essay Topics on Medical Ethics

Medical ethics is an important issue that arises more often and more controversial with progression of human history. If you are writing a medical ethics evaluation essay, consider the ten facts below:

1. Palliative care in a medical facility can result in critical ethical matters the physician must consider. A patient is legally allowed to refuse treatments which will sustain their life, even if that refusal leads to their death. Here, the patient has to be able to understand all of the options at hand, as well as the risks and benefits to all options. The patient must also be able to rationalize and name the treatment they have selected. There are three elements to educated refusal as well as consent to treatment where practitioners can sustain life and that is if the freedom of the patient is coerced, if the patient does not have the ability to make an informed decision, or if the conveying of the information to the patient is not possible.
2. Each nurse is held to different ethical standards in their practice. ADN nurses are tasked with communicating and collaborating with patients as well as their families. They must also work with the medical team to plan, deliver, and coordinate the patient-centered care for all of the assigned patients. RN’s with an ADN must participate as an advocate for the activities that would improve the lives of their patients and help to identify the needs of patients and refer them to the resources that might offer better care after they leave the hospital. It is part of the job of the RN’s with an ADN to ensure complete confidentiality for the patients. They are required in this instance to communicate and collaborate with all members of the health care team assigned to this man’s care in a collective effort to ensure optimal health. The RN’s with an ADN would have to use any supporting technology needed to communicate the patient’s situation and what care is necessary while also assigning the appropriate nursing care and supervising the nurse responsible.
3. Different medical practitioners rely upon different theories of practice in order to make sure they are acting in an ethical fashion at all times. The “need theory” emphasizes the importance of increasing the independence of patients in order to promote continued healing after their hospitalization. It was this “need theory” which was the first distinction made between medicine and nursing. The unique function of nurses was to assist a patient in whatever activities contributed to health or recovery. Nurses give patients, in this context, the strength, the knowledge, or the will to perform such basic tasks unaided. This idea really emphasizes getting into the mind of the patient to help them better heal physically.
4. The Henderson nursing theory stated that the patient required assistance in order to achieve health, regain their independence, or have a peaceful death. The patient and their families needed to be viewed as a single unit, and it was important for nurses to know that the body and mind were inseparable and they needed to be treated as such. She emphasized how the quality of mental health would allow an individual to heal more rapidly (Henderson, 1966). She went on to state that patients wanted to learn, discover, and satisfy their natural curiosity so that they can better develop their health, something that is emphasized in the BSN program.
5. As a nurse, applying Henderson’s “need theory” requires first assessing the basic needs of the individual. Then a nurse must identify the ability of the individual to meet their needs with or without help, taking into account their knowledge, their will, or their strength. They must then document how best to assist the individual. Implementing of treatment prescribed by a physician should be done by taking into account what activities need to be achieved in order to recover from an illness, maintain health, or aid in a peaceful death.
6. The implementation as a nurse should be based on emotional balance, age, cultural background, physical capacities, or emotional capacities. An evaluation should be done to determine the speed with which a patient can perform tasks or the degree to which a patient can perform tasks in an independent fashion, such that they can eventually meet their goals for recovery or a peaceful death (Henderson, 1997).
7. When working with different cultures, it is important for medical practitioners to communicate with parents, and to take certain beliefs into consideration of the parents in the cause and treatment of disease. In Hmong culture parents are open to discussing the name of the problem, as well as what they considered to be the cause. They believed they knew at what point the problem started, but their answer is not necessarily a medical one which Western doctors are trained to address. The parents obviously respect the roles of healers and those roles were highly sacred, which is why they assumed that the doctor would have the solution or the treatment for the problem, and in asking the questions the doctor was obviously open to improving his education of the Hmong medicinal ways so as to afford better treatment that would best bridge the two worlds. However, many Hmong believe that doctors should just know the answers themselves if one is a a good doctor he/she will know without having to speak with the parents.
8. In western medicine there is an ethical dilemma with regard to cultural sensitivity such that there exists exploitation of the natural birthing periods for women, something which Western society today would view as backward because it is not legal. However, the high birth rates, and high birth rates in hospitals can be problematic for Western medical practitioners when working with Hmong people for example. It can be particularly shocking that contraceptives would not be used, especially among the converts, or that no matter the changes in their environment or where they were living, they would stick to their traditional roles of early marriage and multiple children.
9. It is imperative for those whose responsibilities involve children, health or social care matters to fully understand the true meaning of ethical care and the right way to implement such concept in their daily roles and work responsibilities. To put it simply, ethical care is actually a responsibility that is governed by law that requires any individual to at all times upheld the standards of reasonable care when they are carrying out their duties that have the possibilities of hurting others. In this relation, such individual must be sure to check that the internal and external surroundings are safe before commencing any morning sessions. Implementing a cleaning roster is one way to make sure that the gathering conducted in a clean environment.
10. Everyone is familiar with the phrase “Do not judge a book by its cover.” As a society, we pay lip service to the idea that it is wrong to judge people by the way they look. However, this idea becomes this idea is becoming increasingly important in the medical workplace. In private, a person may — rightly or wrongly — make all the judgments he wants and hold whatever opinions he chooses. In a work environment, however, that same person represents the adult social care organization for which he works. It is nowadays vital that a healthcare organization would be viewed as operating ethically. If a medical organization were to acquire a reputation as being unethical, it would have terrible effects on that adult social care organization’s ability to do medical care. Customers, after all, tend to prefer to work companies they like and feel they can trust. A reputation for solid ethics, then, is vital to a medical organization’s bottom line.

We hope that these facts will make your writing easier. Use them along with our list of 20 sample topics and a guide on evaluative essay writing.

References:
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. Print.
Finn, Jeffrey and Eliot Marshall. Medical Ethics. New York: Chelsea HousePublishers, 1990. Print.
Häring, Bernhard. Medical Ethics. Print.
Henningfeld, Diane Andrews. Medical Ethics. Detroit, Mich.: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Print.
Henderson, V. (1961). Basic principles of nursing care. London: [International Council of Nurses].
Henderson, V. (1966). The nature of nursing; a definition and its implications for practice, research, and education. New York: Macmillan.
Henderson, V. (1997). Basic principles of nursing care (Rev. 1997. ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: International Council of Nurses.