Introduction
Promoting healthcare is a vital task for every nation to build a healthy, sustainable society. However, various problems, such as ethical issues, arise and prevent people from implementing innovative solutions to improve health. In some cases, collaboration with authorities is necessary to understand and change the situation. To address ethical issues while promoting health, excessive government control should be identified and managed.
Article Summary
For the article to be considered, Pauly et al. was chosen for its relevance to health promotion and specific ethical issues. In particular, the authors pay considerable attention to the tensions public health practitioners experience in the face of external circumstances. For example, they can experience oppression from an entire country’s health system or unfairness while trying to implement innovative solutions that will benefit the health promotion process (Pauly et al., 2021). The researchers also highlight the issue concerning the usefulness of the existing ethical frameworks that assume monitoring and managing health promotion. However, healthcare professionals are now aware of concrete ethical standards for promoting health, which makes their work more difficult.
To conduct the research, the authors used a questionnaire method and interviewed 32 public health professionals. The study’s results showed four primary ethical issues related to health promotion. According to Pauly et al. (2021), “among them are biomedical versus social determinants of health agenda; systems-driven agendas versus situational care; stigma and discrimination versus respect for persons; and trust and autonomy versus surveillance and social control” (p. 2). Therefore, these problems should be addressed to improve ethical health promotion.
Healthcare Professionals’ Roles
As for the roles that healthcare professionals should play in resolving problems related to excessive ethical frameworks in health promotion, it is important to note management positions. In particular, nurses and doctors have profound knowledge of the field and, consequently, are aware of specific issues that worsen patient care and the entire industry. Therefore, as professionals, they should raise their concerns with authorities and government structures, supported by specific evidence from their practice. It will be essential for health care professionals to establish ethical principles and promote health while collaborating with local governments and avoiding problems such as excessive control over ethical frameworks and other aspects. It is crucial that healthcare workers create ethical concepts with respect to the patient’s privacy and autonomy.
Theories and Ethical Codes
To support the above-stated statement, one should consider theories that highlight the vitality of a human-centered approach. Among them, one can name deontological ethics. This concept underscores the need to respect the patient’s personal preferences, privacy, and character when delivering healthcare services (Pauly et al., 2021). In addition, specific ethical codes that will be useful for health promotion, such as patient safety, performance and process improvement, and quality review and accountability, are essential. This code of ethics, developed by the National Association for Healthcare Quality, highlights key ethical principles, including the importance of lifelong learning and mentoring (Code of Ethics, n. d.). Consequently, it should be implemented in current practices to promote health.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is crucial to state the necessity of ethics in healthcare promotion. It will allow one to maintain basic human standards while providing patients with essential, high-quality services. However, one should note that excessive control, such as that imposed by ethical frameworks, can have adverse effects on healthcare practice when it does not align with a particular patient’s needs and concerns. Therefore, healthcare professionals’ role is to deliver the data to the authorities and to elaborate on effective strategies to improve the situation.
References
Code of Ethics. (n. d.). National Association of Healthcare Quality.
Pauly, B., Revai, T., Marcellus, L., Martin, W., Easton, K., & MacDonald, M. (2021). “The health equity curse“: ethical tensions in promoting health equity. BMC Public Health, 21.
