Medical Assistants - 3 Bio Ethical Dilemmas

Hippocrates was a great figure in he history of medicine. He was an ancient Greek physician born in 460BC. Hippocrates is also known as the Father of Western Medicine. According to this dignified doctor, “Nobody should willingly cause any preventable human suffering or harm”. This affirmation of Hippocrates is the core of medical ethics.

Over 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates knew that no one is perfect that there are no perfect people. He believes that men can do great things. Then again, he also knew what men are capable of. He exceedingly opposes those who heedlessly harm people. He is even hesitant to administer drugs that he believe will only do harm than good to the patient. Because of that thinking, many considered Hippocrates as the first bio ethicist.

Before one can talk about bio ethical dilemmas, one must understand its significance and aim in health care, it is vital to know the difference between law and bioethics. Law are set of rules given by the government while bio ethics can come in either of these two sources. First is personal ethics and the second one is known as professional ethics. The first one relies on the person's individual morals and values. Professional ethics on the other hand are set by professional organization board. They are generally accepted by people practicing the vocation. With no standards, anyone can practice medicine, administer drugs and perform medical interventions. Misdiagnosis, malpractice and even fatality can take place. Indeed, life is valuable. To protect man's presence, health care professionals must know their worth and understand how important they are in the improvement of life.

Like the other profession, medical assistants too are facing bio ethical dilemmas at work. Some people do not realize that practicing medical assisting is not just organizing the clinical setting, caring for patients and memorizing the human anatomy. To be a skilled and medical assistanats, one must know how to act in an ethical demeanor. The code of ethics of the American Association of Medical Assistants or (AAMA) is responsible for providing guidance and supervision to medical assistants as to what is right and wrong in this specific field of practice. They are rather concern on doing the right thing at the right point in time.

Secrecy Breach
Every medical assistant professional must appreciate that secrecy is very important especially in health care. There are rules that govern the patients' medical records. It is important to find out that each patient interplay with the patient is classified. This includes conversation and treatment management. Also, there are times when the patients will disclose personal matters and their most intimate feelings and fears. As respect to the vocation, take note that these pieces of information is not for public knowledge. Then, gossips about the patient's history and medical needs are not allowed.

Loyalty Issues
Fidelity means being loyal or faithful. In medical assisting, fidelity here is about being loyal to the employer. Nevertheless, there is a thin line to being loyal to the employer and doing harm to the patient because the employer or the physician orders his assistant to do interventions that can cause harm to the patient.

Honesty And Making Mistakes
Accepting one has done wrong can be difficult. In spite of this, when it comes to health care, practicing honesty is a must because just one mistake can cause the patient's life. Moreover, failure to admit mistakes can cause potential lawsuits and threat to the institution.

No one is perfect and there is no perfect career. The three examples given above are just some of the most common bio ethical dilemmas faced by the medical assistants. Yes, they can be nerve wrecking. But knowing the rules and where one stands in the profession will help avoid such situations.

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