Ethics

Ethical behavior amongst health care professionals has influenced health care costs in the U.S. While physicians and nurses would like to control costs for instance they also have to take measures to safeguard themselves from law suits. This paper evaluates ethical dilemmas facing physicians and nurses and the influence of various factors in making ethical decisions. The ethical decisions are greatly influenced by social learning theory. As such, ethical behavior of peers, managers and political influence direct ethical decision making. Political connections also play a great part in determining personal ethical behavior.

Physicians and nurses are often faced with the dilemma when making ethical decisions regarding their practice. The ethical behavior amongst nurses and physicians is influenced by various factors including the ethical behavior of the co-workers, the managers ethical behavior, political influence as well as the individuals emotional intelligence.

Ethical issues in health care
Among the main challenging issues faced by physicians in health care settings in the U.S. is how to control costs of healthcare and at the same time ensure that the physician is not sued by the patient. Defensive medicine is therefore an ethical dilemma as the physician may be made to prescribe unnecessary medication and medical procedures (which adds to costs and health risk) rather than risk being sued for failure to act. Deshpande (2009) also indicates that physicians are likely to be involved in unethical practices such as reuse of syringes, being involved in health care fraud as well as instances where the physician prescribes controlled substances. It is also recognized that rising health care costs in the U.S. have also been brought about by dubious practices by hospital management including biased charging of hospital bills and insufficient infection-control measures. As a result, health care organizations constantly find themselves engaged in avoidable law suits with patients and insurers while the organizations reputation is eroded.

To address the ethical issues in health care organizations, Deshpande (2009) proposes that the hospital administration should consider various factors that influence ethical behaviors amongst employees. Going with the social learning theory which proposes that an individuals behavior is greatly influenced by the people that one socializes with, Deshpande (2009) considers the influence of peers on individual ethical behavior. Since employees operate in a social environment, the behaviors of the peers have a great impact on the ethical behavior of individual employees. While making an ethical decision, a nurse or a physician is likely to depend heavily on the views or the principles of fellow workers. Other than the influence of peers, the ethical behavior of the hospital management is also a great factor in determining employee ethical behavior. This is because the hospital manager is not only a mentor but also a role model whose behavior is likely to be adopted as a social norm.

To ensure that ethical behavior is established and maintained in a health care setting, it is wise that a code of ethics is put in place. A code of ethics helps in making ethical consideration and maintaining professionalism. In a healthcare setting, the decision making process should incorporate ethical considerations otherwise known as ethical decision making (Limentani, 1999). Hospital managers can ensure ethical practice by incorporation personal ethical assessment in the recruitment process. It is at this point that the emotional intelligence of the employees should be considered since it impacts ethical behavior. Specifically, a physician or a nurse who has a higher emotional intelligence (for instance they are more empathetic and honesty) have a higher likelihood of practicing ethical behavior.

A major conflicting interest amongst employees and management of a healthcare organization is political influence. Political connections among the employees or the management influences individual ethical behavior as individuals mainly use political influence to attain their personal goals.

Conclusion
When health care professionals are making decisions, they must be able to determine whether the decisions are ethical or not. Ethical behavior must be considered in order to avoid unnecessary law suits and at the same time lower costs of health care. Guided by social learning theory, hospital managers and employees ought to operate in a manner that ensures ethical behavior in the organization.