Discussion of an article on “Health Policy, Politics and Professional Ethics”
Group #
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Iraida Guzman
Yunaisi Sarasa
Lisandra Garcia
Silvia Garcia
Indira Cerra
Ana Cabrera
Kensy Chavez
Marilin Castro
Marielis Alfonso
Zuleiky Duenas
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Healthcare Policy and Delivery Systems
Dr. Bernadette Dike
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Some concepts that must be addressed first:
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Health Policy : “Decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society”. (Carol R. Taylor, Susan I. Belanger, 2019 pp.136).
Professional Ethics: Professional ethics are principles that govern the behavior of a person or group in a business environment. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person should act towards other people and institutions in such an environment. (Lopez, A. ,2018, pp. 1526).
Politics: “Any activity concerned with the acquisition of power, gaining one’s own ends,” is not just for elected officials. (Adnan A. Hyder, David M. Bishai ,2019, pp.156).
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Introduction
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The interaction among Health Policy, Politics and Professional Ethics has been relatively neglected in public health in past years. However, nowadays it has been proved that those concepts mark an important step forward in promoting active consideration of ethical issues in the politics of public health, including the difficult issues involving the relationships of social justice, power, and community participation, within national and global public health efforts.
An understanding of what influences policy decisions, what determines investments for specific public health interventions, and how agreements are made regarding new programs in public health is crucial for analyzing the ethical implications of public health programs and interventions. In this sense, the analysis of the article: “An Overview of Ethics, Public Health Policy, and Politics” will help to better understand the interaction among those concepts by examining the ethical considerations related to policy change and health reform and contrast ethical reasoning with policy processes.
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Discussion of the Article
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The overall goal of the Article is to highlight ethical issues emerging from the work and study of politics and policy development in public health not only in the USA but globally. In this matter, the study, identifies a range of ethical dilemmas that arise in the politics of public health policymaking, and analyzes potential pathways for addressing them.
The authors believe that despite nurses are considered as the country’s most trusted healthcare professionals with a strong commitment to ethical decision making, not all of them take seriously their responsibilities as citizens, despite being frequently reminded that their sheer numbers as the largest group of health professionals. (Carol R. Taylor, Susan I. Belanger, 2019).
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Ethical dilemma in nursing profession ( an example from the Article)
One frequent ethical dilemma in nursing practice occurs when considering mandatory vaccination policies from employers. Nurses must consider the interests of the individual with those of the population, in this case, the population of patients served. Ethical arguments in this situation weigh personal choice against the best interests of patients. Many argue that a nurse’s duty not to harm patients outweighs any restriction on personal choice. Likewise, fairness and promoting the good of patients induces nurses to consider ways to provide protection for their vulnerable patients and to keep them safe. (Carol R. Taylor, Susan I. Belanger, 2019).
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Other concepts as Health inequities and Health disparities are explained in the Article as well. According to the authors Health inequities are the “Differences in health that are avoidable, unfair, and unjust and they are affected by social, economic, and environmental conditions” while Health disparities are “the differences in health outcomes among groups of people”. (Carol R. Taylor, Susan I. Belanger, 2019)
People’s health, well-being and nursing practice, are directly affected by decisions made by governments, insurers, and healthcare institutions according to the authors. In this matter, nursing’s challenge, as profits and politics increasingly dictate health priorities, is to keep health care strongly focused on the needs of patients, their families, and the public.
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Discussion of the Article (cont.)
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Infusing ethics into health practice encourages efforts to convene members of affected communities and to share information and evidence about the harms and benefits of proposed health actions. Moreover, public health informed by ethics is critical, then, not in the sense that it dictates actions that align with principles, but because it encourages deliberations that are more likely to result in ethically informed consensus. Ensuring authentic engagement and voice for affected community members is as important as providing relevant data for their review and shared decision-making.
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Discussion of the Article (cont.)
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Policy creation process does not reach all communities nowadays. Thus, not too many of those populations are involved in the decisions being taken for their health and welfare. Sometimes public health practitioners assume the speaking role of the community and use their own voice as experts to dictate what should be done about shared health risks, and sometimes nobody speaks or advocates for them. In this sense, external actors may be necessary to conduct advocacy to achieve appropriate consideration of ethics in public health practice. Governments also have responsibilities for protecting populations against avoidable deaths and the high cost of ill health, and the ethical underpinning of this understanding reflected the social and political context.
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Discussion of the Article (cont.)
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Limitations of the Study
The Article does not discuss ethical issues pertaining to the general fields of politics, political science, or development studies, and it does not focus on equity issues in the distribution of global resources for health although it mentions the existence of this issues.
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Conclusions
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The article under analysis represented an important step forward in promoting active consideration of ethics issues in the politics of public health, including the difficult issues involving the relationships of social justice, power, and community participation, within national and global public health efforts.
Ethics has reinforced most health policy change and reform, such as the role of the state versus the individual, the responsibility of society for the poor, and balancing not doing any harm against shifting conceptions of goodness and virtue. The policy process and ethical reasoning share many of the same attributes, and policymakers have a responsibility to embrace ethical reasoning in the process to advance better health outcomes. About this, ethical concerns can motivate policy change and health reform and how ethics influences the policymaking process and highlighted specific health policy outcomes, and ethical concerns have been part of the policy process for years.
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Conclusions
Politics are present in every aspect of healthcare. In this sense, healthcare administrators make decisions that impact both, nurses and the populations of patients they serve everyday.
Nurses are in key positions to influence hospital decisionmakers and to share the realities of the daily care of patients and they have the greatest influence when they are well-informed, open-minded, collaborative, and willing to do what is right, even if there is a personal cost.
Action-oriented public health, informed by ethics, helps to guide practice that includes deliberative spaces for stakeholders where dialogue can take place, and can lead to consensus and action agreed upon by affected parties.
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References
Adnan A. Hyder, David M. Bishai (2019). An Overview of Ethics, Public Health Policy, and Politics. The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics Edited by Anna C. Mastroianni, Jeffrey P. Kahn, and Nancy E. Kass. Pp.23-35.
Carol R. Taylor, Susan I. Belanger (2019). Health policy, politics, and professional ethics. Lancet 372(9649). pp 129-134.
Lopez, A. (2018) Health and Health-Research Priorities: Has WHO Got It Right? Lancet 372(9649). Pp. 1525–1527.
Stuckler, D., King, L., Robinson, H., and McKee, M. (2008) WHO’s Budgetary Allocations and Burden of Disease: A Comparative Analysis. Lancet 372(9649). pp 1563–1669.
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