Tonya’s Case: Ethics and Professional Codes

Tonya Archer a fifteen-year-old girl admitted to the hospital for surgery. Her ACL was damaged while she was playing softball. The surgeons told her family about the risks associated with the surgery. Immediately, after surgery, she went into cardiac arrest which resulted in permanent brain damage. Doctors explained to her family about the irreversible damage. However, her family keeps on insisting the doctors continue the lifecare support. This assessment deals with the ethics of end-of-life care.

PHI FPX 3200 Assessment 5 Ethics and Professional Codes

Ethical Principles and Moral Theories in End-of-Life Care

Ethical principles of healthcare are the theoretical framework of the healthcare system. It helps the patients and healthcare practitioners to work accordingly. The ethical principles and moral theories in end-of-life care aim to relieve the suffering of patients while respecting the desires of the patients and families. Biomedical ethics are important to consider in end-of-life healthcare issues. These principles are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.

The autonomy of the patient is mandatory to consider but in the case of Tonya Archer where the patient is unconscious parents have the right to make an end of life decisions for their child. The contradiction between the decision of families and doctors can be viewed by the notion of Beauchamp and Childress. The contradiction of the two principles can be evaluated based on the clinical consequences. The principle of Autonomy is case oriented. It may vary from one case to the other (Flynn, 2020).

The case of Tonya Archer also highlights the ethical issue related to the benefit or futility of continuing the treatment. The ethical principle of Beneficence ensures the best healthcare practices for quality-of-life patients. This principle deals with the effective interventions of healthcare practitioners to enhance the quality of life of patients rather than increasing the period of their lives. In her case, according to practitioners the continuation of the treatment is futile (Akdeniz et al., 2021).

The given case also deals with the healthcare ethical issue, including appropriate medical resource use. Utilitarianism is a critical theory in this regard. This theory advocates the fact that the best decisions should be taken into consideration by utilizing the best possible healthcare resources. Healthcare practitioners utilized the available medical resources for Tonya Archer. Doctors performed surgery on her after that Tonya got immediate medical attention and was placed on a ventilator. Therefore, Tonya Archer got the possible utilization of medical resources. (Vearrier & Henderson, 2021).

Professional Codes of Ethics

A code of ethics serves as a framework in moral situations to advance the health and well-being of patients. Ethical codes are part and parcel of the healthcare system. It guides healthcare professionals to take measures that increase the quality of life of patients. The code of ethics acts as a series of principles for better interactions of patients with healthcare providers. The principles of the code of ethics include; the provision of beneficial and caring services, doing no harm, ensuring beneficence in the treatment, take responsibility in the provision of services (Johnstone, 2022).

PHI FPX 3200 Assessment 5 Ethics and Professional Codes

Application of Professional Code of Ethics 

In the case of Tonya Archer, healthcare practitioners have adhered to the professional code of ethics. Doctors have provided the needed beneficial caring services to her. They followed the principle of beneficent while discontinuing her treatment. As the permanent damage to her brain is irreversible. The continuation of life care support would be futile. Moreover, the principle of Nonmaleficence is also followed by doctors. Tonya’s body will deteriorate if she is kept on life support, and further treatment will be ineffective, causing harm. They providence of immediate medical attention when she went into cardiac arrest, provision of resuscitative services, and placed her on a ventilator. Healthcare staff followed the protocols that were mandatory for the quality of life of Tonya Archer. All these measures justify the application of professional codes of ethics. 

Mission And Value Statements

The mission of every healthcare organization is to treat patients with good quality care and provided patients with quality healthcare services. Similarly, the mission of Saint Anthony Medical Center is to promote the quality of health and care of the patients and families in the community. It works to inspire change with services that enhance the overall quality of life in the community. The values of the hospital include; integrity, excellence, and compassion (Saint Anthony Hospital, n.d.). The hospital follows the principles of a professional code of ethics in end-of-life health care issues.

In the case of Tonya Archer, the hospital followed futile therapy. It is a part of end-of-life therapy. Futile care highlights the fact that treatment aims to maintain the health of the patient as a whole rather than maintaining some functions of organs or physiological activity. To prolong the ineffective treatment only violates the standard of good medical practice. Life-sustaining interventions only prolong the dying process. Futile care can be managed by communication, transfer of knowledge, raising awareness about the increased suffering of dying patients, and improving ethical and emotional support systems (Damps et al., 2022).

Accrediting Bodies

Accreditation is the evaluation of an educational program, institution, or system for quality assurance. Accreditation can be regarded as an integral element of an effective healthcare system. Accreditation increases the outcomes of the healthcare system by influencing the quality of training programs (Frank et al., 2020). Accreditation agencies like the Joint Commission work for the provision of healthcare directives on healthcare standards for patient care. The Joint Commissioner aims to improve the healthcare facilities for all patients. It notices the workings of healthcare systems and encourages them to work effectively. The Joint Commission’s guidelines place a strong emphasis on the necessity of resident or individual care that is required for the delivery of high-quality care that is safe (The Joint Commission, 2020).

My judgments align with the principles of the Joint Commission in the case of Tonya Archer. The hospital has undertaken all the necessary actions according to TJC standards for the improvement of her health. Moreover, the hospital respected the parents’ views that the body and heart displayed signs of survival and offered outpatient services so they could process the unexpected event and then decide.

Conclusion

Therefore, this assessment deals with the end-of-life crisis of Tonya Archer’s case. The ethical and moral issues related to this case are also discussed in the assessment. The healthcare practitioners followed the professional code of ethics in Tonya’s case. The mission and value statements of the healthcare organization are also mentioned in this assessment.

References

Akdeniz, M., Yardımcı, B., & Kavukcu, E. (2021). Ethical considerations at end-of-life care. Sage open medicine, 9(9), 205031212110009. https://doi.org/10.1177/20503121211000918 

Damps, M., Gajda, M., Stołtny, L., Kowalska, M., & Kucewicz-Czech, E. (2022). Limiting futile therapy as part of end-of-life care in intensive care units. Anaesthesiology intensive therapy, 54(3), 279–284. https://doi.org/10.5114/ait.2022.119124 

Flynn, J. (2020). Theory and bioethics. Seop.illc.uva.nl. https://seop.illc.uva.nl/entries/theory-bioethics/ 

Frank, J. R., Taber, S., van Zanten, M., Scheele, F., & Blouin, D. (2020). The role of accreditation in 21st-century health professions education: Report of an international consensus group. BMC Medical Education, 20(S1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02121-5 

PHI FPX 3200 Assessment 5 Ethics and Professional Codes

Johnstone, M.-J. (2022). Bioethics: A nursing perspective. In google books. Elsevier health sciences. https://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PsWHEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=principles+of+codes+of+ethics+in+health+care&ots=QclYY0CyWZ&sig=IfKTeOURnwgbF4QpFJLV8Hbsxjc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=principles%20of%20codes%20of%20ethics%20in%20health%20care&f=false 

Saint Anthony Hospital – Chicago. (n.d.). Mission, vision & values – Sahchicago.org. https://sahchicago.org/about-us/mission-vision-values 

The Joint Commission. (2020). About our standards. Jointcommission.org. https://www.jointcommission.org/standards/about-our-standards/ 

Vearrier, L., & Henderson, C. M. (2021). Utilitarian principlism as a framework for crisis healthcare ethics. HEC Forum, 33(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-020-09431-7