Emergency Medicine and the Ethical Dilemmas - 1749 Words

Emergency Medicine and the Ethical Dilemmas Luisa Martin HCA 322 Instructor Thomas December 5, 2010 Picture this scenario: You are working in the emergency room of a public hospital where the inflow of patients is higher than the available beds. You are treating an elderly man who is breathless and cyanosed. While you assess whether he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure, he becomes drowsy and starts gasping. You quickly intubate him with some difficulty, prolonging his period of hypoxia, and put him on ventilator support. You then get a phone call from a senior consultant in the hospital that an important social activist is about to arrive with chest pain and will need to be admitted. You are directed to†¦show more content†¦Thus, emergency physicians cannot rely on earned trust or on prior knowledge of the patients condition, values, or wishes regarding medical treatment. The patients willingness to seek emergency care and to trust the physician is based on institutional and professional assurances rather than on an established personal relati onship. Fourth, emergency physicians practice in an institutional setting, the hospital emergency department, and in close working relationships with other physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and other health care professionals. Thus, emergency physicians must understand and respect institutional regulations and inter-professional norms of conduct. Fifth, in the United States, emergency physicians have been given a unique social role and responsibility to act as health care providers of last resort for many patients who have no other feasible access to care. Sixth, emergency physicians have a societal duty to render emergency aid outside their normal health care setting when such intervention may save life or limb. Finally, by virtue of their broad expertise and training, emergency physicians are expected to be a resource for the community in pre-hospital care, disaster management, toxicology, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, public health, injury control, and rela ted areas. All of these special circumstances shape theShow MoreRelatedEthics and Live Tissue Training1679 Words   |  7 PagesThe Ethical Dilemma of Live Tissue Training in the Military Environment By Aaron Smith 22 September 2012 Thesis: Over the past 11 years to date, the United States has endured almost 8000 casualties from two major conflicts (iCasualties.org, 2012). Although this number is staggering, we have also seen soldiers surviving injuries that were previously fatal (Philpott, 2005). This increase in survivability is largely due to the advancements in medical research and applied training. 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