Week 5: Ethical and Legal Implications
Case Study Responses:
Analyze the case study for potential issues for members of the healthcare team from office conflict.
Contrast the potential effects for each member of the healthcare team based upon the required
readings from the week. Discuss the potential ethical and legal implications for each of the following
practice members:
Medical assistant
First, behavior involving arguments between staff is unethical, intolerable, and unappropriated in any
workplace. If one has any personal issues it should not reflect in any workplace and must be dealt with
in a private or left at home. If I would be a patient in a waiting room and had to listen to staff arguing,
that would be my last visit to that practice.
The medical assistant clearly forgot her duties regarding patient safety and wellbeing. Taking an
argument over patient health is not acceptable and could be viewed as patient neglect. Blaming
someone else for not doing your job and taking responsibility for your action does speak volumes of
your workplace etiquette.
Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners’ priority should be the patient current condition and safety. According to Gallo
(2014), “you may not be their manager, you have a responsibility to make sure work gets done”. NP has
responsibility for her patients and if coworkers interfere with the care and wellbeing of patients it must
be addressed. Vital sign communication is vital for patient care and prolonged disclosure of it may cause
more damage than good. If NP doesn’t feel confident in stopping and addressing issues, because she is
new to the practice, she should be addressing concerns to the medical director.
Medical Director
The medical director is responsible for the entire practice and should take responsibility for explaining
the fighting impact on the entire team, patients, and practice. Identifying negative relationships and
constant conflicts are important for the productivity of the practice. The medical director should remind
the medical assistance of her duties, ethical issues, and the importance of beneficence, and
nonmaleficence.
Practice
In this situation, the practice may be perceived as a poor-quality provider. Also, there is a risk for breach
of HIPPA if staff involves any patient privacy information. Rees at al. “stated that ethical fading occurs
when individuals do not see the ethical implications of the situation or their action”. Practice
responsibility is to make sure employees are familiar with practice ethics that should be implemented in
a daily work environment.
What strategies would you implement to prevent further episodes of potentially dangerous patient
outcomes?
Case Study Responses:
Analyze the case study for potential issues for members of the healthcare team from office conflict.
Contrast the potential effects for each member of the healthcare team based upon the required
readings from the week. Discuss the potential ethical and legal implications for each of the following
practice members:
Medical assistant
First, behavior involving arguments between staff is unethical, intolerable, and unappropriated in any
workplace. If one has any personal issues it should not reflect in any workplace and must be dealt with
in a private or left at home. If I would be a patient in a waiting room and had to listen to staff arguing,
that would be my last visit to that practice.
The medical assistant clearly forgot her duties regarding patient safety and wellbeing. Taking an
argument over patient health is not acceptable and could be viewed as patient neglect. Blaming
someone else for not doing your job and taking responsibility for your action does speak volumes of
your workplace etiquette.
Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners’ priority should be the patient current condition and safety. According to Gallo
(2014), “you may not be their manager, you have a responsibility to make sure work gets done”. NP has
responsibility for her patients and if coworkers interfere with the care and wellbeing of patients it must
be addressed. Vital sign communication is vital for patient care and prolonged disclosure of it may cause
more damage than good. If NP doesn’t feel confident in stopping and addressing issues, because she is
new to the practice, she should be addressing concerns to the medical director.
Medical Director
The medical director is responsible for the entire practice and should take responsibility for explaining
the fighting impact on the entire team, patients, and practice. Identifying negative relationships and
constant conflicts are important for the productivity of the practice. The medical director should remind
the medical assistance of her duties, ethical issues, and the importance of beneficence, and
nonmaleficence.
Practice
In this situation, the practice may be perceived as a poor-quality provider. Also, there is a risk for breach
of HIPPA if staff involves any patient privacy information. Rees at al. “stated that ethical fading occurs
when individuals do not see the ethical implications of the situation or their action”. Practice
responsibility is to make sure employees are familiar with practice ethics that should be implemented in
a daily work environment.
What strategies would you implement to prevent further episodes of potentially dangerous patient
outcomes?
