Current Ethical Issues In The Healthcare Industry In Australia, Essay.

This assignment requires you to write a report of 1200 words on a current ethical issue in the industry in which you aspire to work. The report must answer the following questions:
1. What is the ethical issue to be addressed and how does it impact different stakeholders in the industry
2. What are the major alternatives for addressing the issue
3. What is your preferred alternative and how can this choice be justified.

Healthcare Industry of Australia

Ethics refers to the deciding factors which show the difference between right and wrong decisions. The man purpose of this report is to discuss the ethical issues in the healthcare industry in Australia which are affecting the healthcare providers and the service users as well. One of the biggest ethical issues faced by healthcare industry is the problems of communication difference and gap between different stakeholders in the healthcare system (Cote, 2013). The service providers and users come from different societies and backgrounds and find difficult to transform relationships which fosters learning and better services to the users. The recommendations will be given to address the issue in the end of the report.

Healthcare industry of Australia

This is the key ethical problem across the healthcare industry in the world. In Australia, the healthcare industry is spending a huge amount for providing high quality service to the users and to create a sustainable environment for different stakeholders like Health care professionals, policymakers, service users, government and society. The industry is a positive contributor to the economy as it creates employment, encourage innovation and contribute in GDP of the country (Parsi, 2015).

Ethical issue to be addressed in the healthcare industry 

The main ethical issue in the healthcare industry of Australia is the issue of communication.  The healthcare industry is facing the problem of communication among the service users and the providers and the other stakeholders in the industry. The relationships between the users and providers of services need to be made cordial so that the needs can be met and mutual learning can take place. It matters that how everyone talk to each other and what attitude they carry towards each other in the healthcare setting. The people come from different religions and backgrounds which needs different approaches to deal with them. The service providers cannot just be partial with one service user and ignore the other one (Ventola, 2014).

The service providers are required to maintain proper communication with the patient and the attendants of the patients. The providers of service cannot misinform the patients and have to behave in the best interests of the service users. The service provider needs to inform the service user about each and every detail about the medical treatment and the disease. The partial details and description does not make any sense. Communication is very important in the healthcare settings. The trust should be built up between different parties for better results and services (Egbert and Nanna, 2009).

Ethical standards have been made for helping the individuals to make a choice between right or wrong. There are ethical dilemmas in the healthcare when there is a conflict between the interest of two parties or in making the decisions.  Social media in healthcare is creating another ethical issue. Social media is the platform where people share their ideas, emotions and communicates with each other through internet. Social media in healthcare has been adopted to avail benefits of it.

It provides health literacy to the patients and enhances their knowledge about different concepts in healthcare. Social media also makes it possible for the patients and professionals to communicate with each other in case of need and builds trust and credibility. Despite having these benefits there are some issues with the social media in healthcare (Muhlen and Ohno-Machado, 2012). It raises many ethical issues like being in friendship or relationship with the patients is one such issue. It may lead to the impairment of the professional judgement of the healthcare professionals. There should be a limited boundaries maintained between the healthcare professionals and service users (Chretien and Kind, 2013).

Ethical Issue in the Healthcare Industry

The other ethical issues of using social media for communication in the healthcare industry is providing poor quality of information on the social media. The information may not be reliable and genuine which could lead to serious conclusions for the ones who use that information.  Social media is also ruining the professional image of the doctors and other professionals. The content posted by the public may harm their professional reputation. Social media also creates an issue of the breach of patients’ privacy. The communication between the patient and the professional can be leaked which is confidential (Wickersham & Sumner, 2015).

Impact on various stakeholders

There are various stakeholders in the healthcare industry. The main stakeholders include the healthcare professionals and the users. The other stakeholders are the government, environment and society. Ethical issues in the communication between these stallholders have huge impact on these stakeholders. The most affected stakeholders are the healthcare professionals and the users. If the communication is not good between them, it will affect the healthcare services. The communication should be within the boundaries and limits.

Nowadays the use of social media in healthcare is also creating such issues for the stallholder which affects the reputation of the healthcare professionals and breaches the confidentiality of the users.  The society will be affected from this because the issues of trust will be created and it will impact the trust and relationship between the healthcare professionals and the service users (Wynia and Osborn, 2010).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that Healthcare industry in Australia is huge but it faces ethical issues which hamper the relationships between the various stakeholders of the industry. There are number of ethical issues among which the issue of communication is the major one. The differences of culture, backgrounds, thought process, languages and other factors create difference in communication between the healthcare professionals and the users.

The service providers may favour one patient and may not pay attention to the other which creates an ethical issue. Also communication through social networks is hampering the relationships and image of the stakeholders of the healthcare industry.  There are certain steps which could be taken for improving the communication in the healthcare industry and eradicate the ethical issues which hamper the services and creates trust issues between different parties of healthcare.

Recommendations

To minimise the harmful impacts of the ethical issue of communication in the healthcare industry, some recommendations can be followed. The healthcare providers should be trained to understand the difference between the personal or professional communication with the patients (Hughes, 2010). The healthcare advices and information should be given to the patient in person rather than on social media which would help them in maintaining the privacy of the service user. The healthcare settings should follow the Data Protection Laws and guarantee the confidentiality to the service user to maintain trust.

Only that content should be published on the online platform which is verified and is given by appropriate health consultant. The professional respectful attitude should be maintained with every healthcare user online and in personal. The colleagues should behave properly with each there. The personal grudges and problems should be ignored in the professional boundaries. For a healthcare professional each and every patient and the fellow colleague should be equal. The healthcare professionals should be properly guided with the regulations and policies. Education and training should be given for making everyone understand the importance of good and ethical communication in the healthcare industry (Meuter, et al., 2015).

I would prefer to give importance to the training and education given to the healthcare professionals so that no ethical issue can be raised. This could be done more clearly my developing the rules and policies which would make it clear to everyone that how communication could be maintained ethically at the healthcare workplace.

References

Chretien, K C and Kind, T 2013, Social Media and Clinical Care, Circulation, 127(13), pp.1413-1421.

Cote, D 2013, ‘Intercultural communication in health care: challenges and solutions in work rehabilitation practices and training: a comprehensive review’, Disability and Rehabilitation, vol.35, no 2, p.153-163.

Egbert, N and Nanna, K M 2009, ‘Health literacy: Challenges and strategies’, The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(3).

Hughes, J 2010, ‘Ethical issues and decision-making in dementia care’, Alzheimer’s Australia.

Meuter, R F, Gallois, C, Segalowitz, N S, Ryder, A G and Hocking, J 2015, ‘Overcoming language barriers in healthcare: A protocol for investigating safe and effective communication when patients or clinicians use a second language’, BMC health services research, 15(1), p.371.

Parsi, K 2015, ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends? A Case-Based Analysis of Ethical Issues with Social Media in Health Care’, American Medical Association.

Ventola, C L 2014, ‘Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices’, NCBI.

Von Muhlen, M and Ohno-Machado, L 2012, Reviewing social media use by clinicians, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19(5), pp.777-781.

Wickersham, M E & Sumner, J R 2015, ‘The Ethics of Place: Differences in Ethical Perspectives Among Urban, Suburban, and Rural Physicians in Georgia’, Online Journal of Health Ethics, 11(2).

Wynia, M K and Osborn, C Y 2010, ‘Health literacy and communication quality in health care organizations’, Journal of health communication, 15(S2), pp.102-115.