Healthcare workers have a moral obligaton to care for COVID19 patents and
cannot object to caring for these patents.http://www.myassignmenttutor.com
Healthcare workers all around the world provide care to patents in various
setngs and various circumstances in order to support them through illness and
health. However, with the recent outbreak of COVID19 around the globe, the
queston has been raised whether or not healthcare workers have a moral obligaton
to care for COVID19 patents, and whether or not they can refuse to care for them.
However, healthcare workers are morally obligated to provide care and treat
COVID19 patents like they would any other, because it is their ethical duty to care,
they freely enter into this profession, and their refusal to work due to fear of
contractng the virus will only lead to the risk being passed on to another healthcare
professional and contribute to the already understaffed industry.
The COVID19 pandemic has emphasised many of the challenging ethical
concerns that healthcare professionals tackle when caring for patents and their
families. The Code of conduct for nurses (the code) is essentally a rule book that
exhibits the legal requirements, professional behaviour and expectatons for nurses
in practce setngs within Australia. In tmes like this it can be used to protect the
public by setng and maintaining the standards writen in the code to guarantee safe
and efcient nursing practce (“Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia –
Professional standards”, 2020). An example of this in relaton to the nurse’s duty of
care towards a COVID19 patent can be seen in partcular in the principle 2: personcentred practce. This principle states that nurses must guarantee the distributon of
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quality care and recognise their professional obligaton to protect people (“Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia – Professional standards”, 2020). Additonally, it can
be seen within the code that their ethical duty to care is also a legal obligaton, and if
obligatons are not met under the Natonal Law then one may be deemed negligent
(“Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia – Professional standards”, 2020). Thus,
essentally it is supportng the claim that nurses have an obligaton to care for a
patent whether it is in a pandemic or not. Furthermore, the four principles of ethics
are another source that help support the claim that is being proven. These principles
created in the 1970’s revolve around four moral principles which include
benefcence, non-malefcence, respect for autonomy and justce (Beauchamp &
Childress, 2019). In the pandemic context each principle generates a number of
obligatons on the part of a healthcare worker. For example, benefcence would cover
the duty of care towards the patent and the duty to act in the best interest of their
relatves. Non-malefcence would be minimising risk to patents and preventng
further spread of the disease. Importantly, following the principle of justce would
mean fair treatment of all patents and willingly knowing that the refusal to treat a
patent would create many professional problems. Thus, based on the code and the
four principles of ethics, it can be seen that healthcare workers have an ethical duty
to care for patents during disasters, despite there being a personal risk (Kadish &
Loike, 2020)
Similar to a police ofcer you’re getng into the feld of healthcare knowing
that you will be very well putng your life at risk in order to provide care to those
within the community. Working in healthcare is a humanitarian career, so why is it
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that people feel the need to queston their moral obligatons? This perspectve is
based on the idea that health care is a humanitarian occupaton that requires
workers to care for those whom are sick under any conditons and that this is what
they have agreed to when voluntarily entering this profession. This has not been the
frst pandemic healthcare workers have been exposed to in history and the risk of
exposure to infectous diseases is not something new for healthcare workers. Within
the last 50 years, healthcare professionals have batled risks from diseases such as
SARS, Ebola and HIV/AIDS just to name a few (Morley, Grady, McCarthy & Ulrich,
2020). By voluntarily signing up to a career in healthcare and exposing themselves to
these risks they’re actng in accordance to the principles of ethics such as nonmalefcence by risking their personal life in order to minimise the risk to someone
else’s life through an act of heroism (Cox, 2020). Thus, these personal risks within
healthcare roles should come as no surprise as this is an accepted part of working in
the industry.
In the midst of the pandemic it is no surprise that healthcare workers are
not immune to COVID19 and with cases having risen in many large cites around the
world it is important to have all healthcare professionals on board. So, what happens
when a healthcare worker objects to giving care during a pandemic? Their refusal to
work due to the fear of contractng the virus will only lead to the risk being passed on
to another healthcare professional and contribute to the already understaffed
industry. Each hospital bed in an intensive care unit is operated by the equivalent of
fve full tme registered nurses spanning across a seven-day week, 24 hours a day.
With this perspectve in mind according to an artcle published at the beginning of
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the pandemic, an additonal 10,000 nurses were needed, and in order to maintain
the existng standards of care the number of registered nurses in the intensive care
unit would need to be doubled to approximately 20,000 (McCauley, 2020). Can you
imagine if all of these nurses decided that their risk to COVID19 was more important
than the risk of the community, only to refuse to care for sick patents of which they
signed up to do when choosing a humanitarian career in healthcare. This would be
an unethical decision, making the choice to go against their moral and legal
obligatons and contradictng their responsibility to show benefcence and justce in
their career.
Despite the issues that have been discussed in order to support the argument
in relaton to healthcare workers having a moral obligaton to care for COVID19
patents there are limitatons that need to be examined. As it has been discussed
healthcare workers do have an obligaton to care for COVID19 patents, however
there is a level of tolerable risk beyond which this duty is no longer justfable. Some
healthcare workers may not have access to the appropriate PPE gear, may have
comorbidites themselves or live with immunocompromised individuals like the
elderly, where the outcome of spreading COVID19 may be grim. In additon to
healthcare workers having a duty to provide care for their patents, they also have a
duty to provide care to themselves and their loved ones. What if someone faced an
80-per-cent probability for a life-threatening illness? Would they be expected to work
knowing that their risk of dying may be higher than the risk of their own patent? An
artcle published in April explained that many of the healthcare professionals who
died did not have access to the appropriate PPE gear (Mason, 2020). So, if a police
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ofcer wouldn’t confront an armed robber without a gun, and a frefghter wouldn’t
confront a fre without an extnguisher, then why would we let a healthcare worker
treat an infectous patent without the right PPE gear? The code itself also specifes
that nurses have a duty to promote their own personal health and safety (the code).
This creates an issue around them balancing their responsibilites of benefcence and
obligatons to treat patents with dutes to address shortages in the healthcare
system in ways that are coherent with their duty to protect themselves (Morley,
Grady, McCarthy & Ulrich, 2020). Therefore, if employers provide the appropriate
PPE gear and address the risks that come with caring for COVID19 patents then
healthcare workers should contnue to provide care for patents that is associated
with the regular risks that healthcare workers willingly take on when they enter into
this feld.
To conclude it is evident that healthcare workers are morally obligated to
provide care and treat COVID19 patents like they would any other. Although there
are tolerable risks such as healthcare workers not having access to the appropriate
PPE gear and may have comorbidites themselves, it is their ethical duty to care, they
freely enter into this profession, and their refusal to work due to fear of contractng
the virus will only lead to the risk being passed on to another healthcare professional
and contribute to the already understaffed industry.
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References
Beauchamp, T., & Childress, J. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed., pp.
112, 113, 114). US: Oxford University Press Inc.
Cox, C. (2020). ‘Healthcare Heroes’: problems with media focus on heroism from
healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal Of Medical
Ethics, 46(8), 510-513. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2020-106398
Kadish, A., & Loike, J. (2020). A pandemic ethical conundrum: Must health care
workers risk their lives to treat Covid-19 patents?. Stat. Retrieved from
htps://www.statnews.com/2020/07/24/a-pandemic-ethical-conundrum-musthealth-care-workers-risk-their-lives-to-treat-covid-19-patents/
Mason, G. (2020). The moral obligatons of our health care workers in a
pandemic. The Globe And Mail. Retrieved from
htps://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/artcle-we-should-never-expecthealth-care-workers-to-treat-patents-without/
McCauley, D. (2020). Intensive care units need 10,000 more nurses to prepare for
COVID-19. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from
htps://www.smh.com.au/politcs/federal/intensive-care-units-need-10-000-
more-nurses-to-prepare-for-covid-19-20200324-p54dgj.html
Morley, G., Grady, C., McCarthy, J., & Ulrich, C. (2020). Covid-19: Ethical Challenges
for Nurses. Hastngs Center Report, 50(3), 35-39. doi: 10.1002/hast.1110
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Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia – Professional standards. (2020). Retrieved
6 August 2020, from htps://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/CodesGuidelines-Statements/Professional-standards.aspx
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