![]() ![]() Some questions you could be asked at an interview include: Does the best course of action align with patient expectation?.Have you thoroughly considered every option and weighed up what the best course of action is for the specific patient in the scenario?.You should think about the following things: ![]() When you’re talking about ethical issues, you need to consider beneficence. Beneficence asks us to promote a course of action, but in practice, we also need to de-promote certain courses of action if there are better options available. It’s a rather severe example but also helps demonstrate an important point. That course of action is “more good” than amputation. Using blood products to manage the bleeding, reducing the fracture if possible and considering orthopaedic surgery will have better outcomes for this patient. Most important of all, there are other interventions that have better outcomes attached. The limitations to their physical movement also carry other future risks that could inadvertently result in further physical and mental health issues. The treatment would result in a life-changing injury and the risks of infection or massive bleeding aren’t proportionate. It would be “good” for the patient in as much as the injury would be resolved and the threat to life from bleeding or infection somewhat reduced.īut let’s consider the implications of amputation. If the bleeding is life-threatening, the limb sufficiently injured and the risk of infection extremely high, then amputation could be a treatment option. There are a number of options for treatment here, but let’s take an extreme one – amputation. The parents are demanding immediate action be taken. The limb is deformed with significant bleeding and the patient is extremely distressed. For example:Īn eight-year-old child has been admitted to hospital with a significant open fracture to their left leg. You may be given an ethical scenario to consider during your interview. It is important to bear the patient’s expectations in mind when ranking treatments because when we refer to doing “good”, we don’t only mean what is medically good for the patient, but also what is acceptable to the human being we are treating. This is also known as holistic or patient-centric care. You will notice that several considerations are concerned with the patient’s expectations or circumstances. Is this option and its outcomes in-line with the patient’s expectations of treatment?.Is this option compatible with this patient’s individual circumstances?.Is it proportionate to the scale of the medical problem?.Will this option resolve this patient’s medical problem?.It might be useful to think of beneficence as of the process of ranking the available options for the patient from best to worst, taking into consideration the following aspects: Unlike non-maleficence, it goes beyond simply doing no harm and encourages to actively help others. Beneficence is a core principle in medical ethics that guides practitioners to act as they believe is in the best interest of the patient.
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