Back to: Linking to Care, Point of Care Testing (POCT). Aotearoa Edition
This lesson, in Health Network Collective opinion, is one of the most important in this course. Medical Ethics. Specifically, the rights of our wai ora, the rights of people seeking care and in care.
Medical ethics is concerned with the obligations of the doctors and the hospital to the patient along with other health professionals and society.
Our Medical Ethics today take many forms internationally, the meaning and essence however is the same.
Originating from the Greek physician Hippocrates, 460-370BC, “first, do no harm” (or “primum non nocere,” the Latin translation from the original Greek.) For interest, the earliest record of this exact phrase in the context of medicine is from around 275AD.
A 1979 publication, The Principles of Biomedical Ethics “unleashed” the four moral principles or pillars modern medical ethics are largely based on. These four pillars are; (and you are not expected to memorise these)
- Autonomy; giving the patient the freedom to choose freely, where they are able
- Non-maleficence; to do no harm
- Beneficence; doing good
- Justice; ensuring fairness
- note, some Medical Councils also include or use, integrity, honesty, respect, and trust as the basis for their conduct and professionalism standards.
For the purpose of this lesson, and with the association of Health Network Collective to Aotearoa, we are going to base our Medical Ethics lesson on the Te Toihau Hauatanga (Health and Disability Commissioner New Zealand) The Code and your rights Also downloadable from the resources section of this lesson.
Let’s start with an introduction video, you must watch the less than four (4) minute video in entirety. Te Reo or English.
Your Rights
Right One (1) The right to be treated with respect.
- Reflecting on the earlier lessons in this course, we only ever treat and interact with our wai ora with respect, and we extend that respect to how we act with our community.
Right Two (2) The right to freedom from discrimination, coercion, harassment, and exploitation.
- This aligns with Health Network Collective support of United Nations Anti-Discrimination statements and our support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And that we like to be nice.
- Health Network Collective will highlight that relationships with wai ora must be kept on a professional basis. Especially not forming sexual relationships developed or resulting from medical or health related practice. Health Network Collective will not condone or accept any discriminatory, coerced, harassing, or exploitative behaviours or practice. And has no course content or practice that could be suggestive or misinterpreted as such.
Right Three (3) The right to dignity and independence.
- This right should be self-explanatory.
- And see notes for Right Two (2) above.
Right Four (4) The right to services of an appropriate standard.
- Health Network Collective will conduct any procedure, including links to care and navigation of treatment pathways, in a professional manner and as is described in these lessons and course.
Right Five (5) The right to effective communication.
- In the next Lesson 8 POCT Behaviour, we will discuss effective communication and communication strategies in more detail.
Right Six (6) The right to be fully informed.
- The right to be fully informed is, from Health Network Collective stance, is informing within the limitations of our scope of practice, what we have been formally taught by undertaking Health Network Collective training and courses. Informing must be factual and within our respective limitations.
Right Seven (7) The right to make an informed choice and give informed consent.
- Once you are introduced to procedures and the mobile application, you will be equipped with clear concise consent and informing statements to read to or have read by wai ora. Wai ora will also need to indicate, via the application, their agreement.
Right Eight (8) The right to support.
- Health Network Collective encourage our wai ora to bring support people with them. This has a dual purpose. Wai ora have support, and Health Network Collective have the opportunity to inform and educate more people from the community.
Right Nine (9) Rights in respect of teaching or research.
Health Network Collective has statements to help inform our wai ora, and you, within the mobile application. Many of these are publicly viewable, some wai ora informative statements are designed to be read by you giving opportunity for discussion and ensuring wai ora are clear and understanding of the material or statements. Health Network Collective also strives to design and update training materials and welcome feedback and suggestions on content.
Right Ten (10) The right to complain.
Everyone has the right to complain. Formal complaints can always be directed to the Health Network Collective website and sent as an email, or passed on via you. Health Network Collective does ask that the “No Surprise” policy is respected and your supervisor, manager or Health Network Collective are informed of any and all complaints, even if resolve has been reached. And please do not feel you are alone in resolving issues, reach out to your support team and get help.
In Summary
Now that we have touched on Medical Ethics and wai ora rights, and developed an understanding of Health Network Collective guidelines and obligations, the modern-day ethics principles of integrity, honesty, respect, and trust should make a lot more sense for application in how we work in a health and medical context. The following lessons on behavior and personal safety will start to bring all these components together in giving us some baselines for strategies and ways of working.
