Ethical Question- Post 10

One of the current debated topics in the medical field, for doctors and physician's assistants, is of euthanasia. 1. So the question is: Is it ethical for doctors to practice euthanasia? 


2. There are obviously two sides to this question, one being it is unethical for physician's to remove a patient from life support, no matter if they are suffering or in a coma. This side believes that this is an intentional killing, rather then letting the patient die naturally. Some of the objections that people that are against euthanasia are; There isn't a reason for someone to die in pain anymore because we are becoming very good at blocking pain with medication (Palliative Care). Another objection is that we, as physician's and family, don't have the evidence that a dying person really wants to be assisted in death and whether the dying person is competent or enduring enough to make that decision.
On the other side of the fence, for the people who believe that euthanasia is ethical, there are a number of reasons they believe in it. There is list of requirements that the patient must be experiencing in order to practice euthanasia. 1. The patient is suffering from terminal illness 2. The patient is unlikely to benefit from the discovery of a cure for their illness during the remainder of their lifetime. 3. The patient is suffering intolerable pain of has a very burdened life because of the disease. 4. Is unable to commit suicide on their own. 
3. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/

4. My position on the topic is with the against euthanasia side. I do believe that people that who are suffering or have a terminal illness should be allowed to die naturally. The patient, at times, isn't fully competent with their decisions and will possibly want to take the 'easy way out'. But I am not one for that. There are medical miracles everyday around the world, and who knows when and where the next one will be. Also, having the courage to actually purposely kill someone is not in me. The patient's family still loves them and enjoys every second that they have left on earth. It's difficult for me to be able to take not only someone's life, but the happiness of others, no matter the situation.

5. My comment: "When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  -Franklin D. Rosevelt

Post 8 Ethical Question

Q: Is it ethical for a physician to accept Wild tickets from a pharmaceutical rep to take her family to the game?


A: I would say no, it isn't ethical. Although the physician can learn information about a new pharmaceutical drug, it is unethical to accept tickets in order to allow an audience with a pharm. rep. There are methods of finding out information from the pharmaceutical drug. I don't believe that physician's are limited to meetngs with pharm. reps in order to find out more about drugs and to hear a sales pitch of any kind. I'm sure that hospitals and other health care facilities would not find accepting tickets to a Wild game would be ethically sound for their business. Although physician's claim to say that gifts don't influence their decisions what so ever, pharm. reps claim that they often times need to present gifts in order to get their foot in the door. 

General Ethics

Physician's Assistant's Ethical Code:

U.S.

Ethics are guided by autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. 

Statement of Values of the Physician Assistant Profession

• Physician assistant hold as their primary responsibility the health, safety, welfare, and dignity of all human beings.
• Physician assistants uphold the tenets of patient autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.
• Physician assistants recognize and promote the value of diversity.
• Physician assistants treat equally all persons who seek their care.
• Physician assistants assess their personal capabilities and limitations, striving always to improve their medical practice.
• Physician assistants actively seek to expand their knowledge and skills, keeping abreast of advances in medicine.
• Physician assistants work with other members of the health care team to provide compassionate and effective care of patients.
• Physician assistants respect their professional relationship with physicians.
• Physician assistants share and expand knowledge within the profession.

Diversity

Diversity, to me, means to be open and bring in people from different back rounds. This will benefit myself by opening my eyes, as well as my peers, and to see things with a different perspective. This will help make life and my career less mundane. Having people with different back rounds will have different ideas and different ethics on areas of work. They all might not be great ideas, but they can be constructive and build up other ideas. 

1. Mayo Clinic staff value and promote diversity. Diversity refers to all the characteristics that distinguish individuals or groups from one another. It includes distinctions based on race, color, creed, religion, gender, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, veteran's status, or status with regard to public assistance.

The goal of Mayo Clinic staff is to create a caring service environment where individual differences are valued, allowing individuals to achieve and contribute to their fullest potential. Benefits of embracing this goal include:

• Diversity of viewpoints and perspectives in concepts, initiatives and decision making
• Greater innovations and creativity
• A broad pool of qualified employees, enabling recruitment and retention of the best talent

An environment that nurtures and supports the fullest contributions of each individual is essential to success in patient care, education and research. Creating and sustaining this climate are the responsibilities of each individual who provides care, directly or indirectly, or learns at Mayo Clinic.

2. At Hennepin County Medical Center, we believe that diversity is more than race, ethnicity and gender, and is inclusive of age, sexual orientation, education, socioeconomics, physical ability, religion, and all the ways in which we are the same and different.

Why Inclusion?

While diversity focuses on the ways in which we are the same and different, and raising awareness and acknowledging our similarities and differences are important, the work of inclusion is a focus on providing a sense of belonging to all individuals so that they are welcomed, respected, encouraged and valued as an employee, volunteer, and patient.

3. UnitedHealth Group: We embrace and encourage a culture of diversity and inclusion. We know that valuing diversity makes good business sense and helps to ensure our future success.

4. At Fairview, diversity is more than a buzzword. It cuts to the essence of how we provide care and how employees feel about working here. As a word, diversity describes the differences and similarities that affect how we work and live together. Examples include race, ethnicity, nationality, primary language and accent, age, gender, gender identity, physical capability, sexual orientation, size, spiritual beliefs and tenure.

The diversity of our communities is reflected among those who work at Fairview and those for whom we care. By understanding, respecting and using our differences to improve the lives of those we touch, we inspire employee pride. 

Fairview's policies and practices promote equal opportunity employment. We know that people choose Fairview as an employer and as a health care provider based on how well we understand and respect our differences. Having a diverse balance in our workforce improves our culturally competent care and helps create a welcoming environment for all patients and employees.

A lot of the Diversity Statements do like to address that by valuing diversity, the company as well as the employees and customers, will prosper and benefit.  They fit very well with my view on diversity. I know that diversity can bring change to a group of people and that, with proper guidance, can be a positive outcome. 

Professional Development Plan

Professional Development Plan for 5 years from now.

Interests- The health field is a passion of mine. I enjoy learning about medical practices and the science behind their methods. I also have an interest in sports and other physical activities. I excel at learning and applying my knowledge of health and wellness in my life as well as others. That’s why my interest in the health field is so great.

Goals- Within a year, I would like to be building my patient care hours as a Certified Nursing Assistant or a Phlebotomist, as well as working a full time job. I want to be prepared and ready to apply to Physician’s Assistant school. Within three years, I want to be in PA school. Not sure which school. I’m still looking over my options. In six years, I want to be a PA and optimistically in surgery.  

Action Steps- I will first graduate with a degree in Applied Science from Stout in Spring 2012. I have been offered a full time position with UnitedHealth Group once I do graduate. I will acquire my CNA licensed or Phlebotomist license soon after graduating from Stout so I can build my patient care hours for PA school.

Corrective Action- Not at the moment. 

Carbon Dioxide Paper Evaluation

1. https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AR-g2f6dIA0oZGdxZG1zaHdfMTljZDJqYzhweA&hl=en_US

2. I believe that the criteria we established were good criteria. I think that the two criteria we chose can and are used by other groups and committees, when evaluating a scientific paper.

3. I believe that the strength of my group, the "No" group, were very apparent in the actual presentation of their findings. The "No" groups did a nice job researching on the paper, looking for evidence on making the paper invalid, and conveying that in a way that the rest of the class could see and understand in a short period of time. I felt that, at least two of the three "No" groups, were confident in their content that they came up with. If there was a question or objection from anyone in the class, it seemed that the group was ready to rebuttal. All of these strengths I believed help the "No" group win in the voting. Some of the weaknesses that we had as a group was to find evidence to prove the paper wrong and being able to apply it to the criteria we set. Another struggle we had, at least for my individual group, was deciding what things should we present and which information would give us a strong presentation.

4. What went well was the communication between people. My individual group used Google Docs, which provides an accessible way for everyone to view, make changes, and provide feedback on our power point deck. One struggle we did face was always having every group member there. It was a busy period for several group members, so it was difficult to keep up with some of the things people had dug up about the paper to present on.

5. I believed in my position on the paper. It made it a little easier to do research and present on.

6. It is difficult to say if we made the right choice. Based on our beliefs and evidence we found disproving the paper, it's hard to validate the paper and the information with in it.

7. Kind of going off of what we talked about in class, the US is beginning to become smaller in the global scale of things like; economy, population and power. The things we do are having a lesser impact to the world  then they did in the past.

8. What we do as individuals matters because, just like Einstein, Newton, Bill Gates and others, an individual can make a huge impact to the world, it's market and it's environment. All it takes is for someone to say something, propose an idea, create a life altering invention and everything swings.