ETHICAL HEALTH PRACTISE: A CASE STUDY OF A CONTEGIOUS DISEASE TRANSMITION

Healthcare practitioners provide support for patient’s self-management. The center of attention for healthcare policy makers tends to stimulate self-management for patients. Especially, when there is need to maintain an underlying value of patient’s to practitioner’s relationships (Dwarswaard & Bovenkamp, 2015). However, the focus on patient’s self-management emphasizes on attaining optimum medical outcomes whereas, it does not put to consideration a patient’s incapacity to act morally in accordance with medical regulations, but rather moved by their personal desires. Therefore, self-management practice arises healthcare dilemmas, and its support requires a careful health deliberation. These deliberations should include patients (Dwarswaard & Bovenkamp, 2015), as their inclusion forms a sentimental element in making self-management decisions.

Introduction.

Although health practitioners emphasize on a patient’s self-management, the move is dependent on the patient’s willingness to actively participate in their care. This gives rise to the question of patient’s autonomy, making it a complex ethical concept whose solution requires tackling various problems to foster a successful patient autonomy (Moser et al., 2013). In a research to dicerne patient autonomy based on positive and negative freedoms, Moser et al., argue that negative freedom emphasizes on a person’s action and non-interference by others. On the other hand, positive freedom directs living one’s life based on personal convictions, individual reasons, and a person’s goals.

Both positive and negative freedoms scrutinize a patient’s ability to manage their health situation. The later differ in that, negative freedom focuses on a person’s self-governance without interference from others people. Conversely, the cornerstone of positive freedom is the person’s ability to identify and communicate about their medical issue, in to receive timely care and achieve the desired autonomy results. Having knowledge of the patient and interacting them in the context of their health challenge is essential in fostering patient autonomy (Moser et al., 2013).

Fostering patient autonomy puts health practitioners providing self-management support at the risk of facing three different types of types of ethical dilemmas. First, there is a dilemma of respecting a patient’s autonomy, or intervening to attain the required optimum healthcare results. Secondly, some patients are reluctant to get involved in their care getting practitioners undecisive of whether to respect the patient’s autonomy or stimulate their involvement in their care. Lastly, practitioners can be tempted to have a hostilic approach on patients that do not want to get involved in their personal care, or to safeguard a professional boundary.

This healthcare dilemmas rest on the diversified constituents of good healthcare and good self-management. Practitioners tend to direct patient’s in certain directions in the quest of providing good care provision and promote their involvement in self-management practice. This can include making and convincing patients to adhere to their suggestions in making the right choices and being involved in their care.