Reflective Essay

Going through the medical ethics course has taught me so much more than stuff about the basic ethic principles. It has also taught me how to be a professional physician assistant in the future.

I grew up in a family of health care professionals. Influenced by my family, I chose the same field as my career. After completing my initial medical training in the Medical School in China, I moved to the United State. When working in the clinic, I discovered the Physician Assistant profession. In pursuit of this goal, I decided to speak with my aunt, who is an anesthesiologist in the U.S. She introduced me to the role of PA. The PA profession has a bright future and it will be greatly needed to provide care to patients as demand for healthcare services grow. I also visited my PA friend at the hospital, and admired her significant level of patient interaction and her ability to work both autonomously and alongside other physicians and nurses.  I admired the PA’s flexibility and versatility and began to focus my attention on becoming a PA.

I think the medical professionalism will be most important to me during the clinical practice. ABMS definite medical professionalism as a belief system and it is the daily expression of the desire to help patient by providing quality health care to those in need (Hafferty et al., 2012). As I understanding, medical professionalism is the competence in a specialized knowledge and skill, but also shows consideration and respect for others (Scheure, 2015). As a PA student, our goal is to take good care of patients professionally by using the “trained” knowledge and skill. However, some of us forget why we practice medicine and also forget to follow the professional standers to keep professionalism over times. For example, substance abuse at work is an unprofessional conduct for PAs. It will affect not just PAs but our PA’s families, colleagues, and patients. Therefore, to provide safe, high quality care to patients and protecting the safety of patients, professionalism is an essential feature of a PA.

One principle important to support the professionalism is beneficence. Beneficence means we have to do good and avoid harm for others (Yeo et al., 2010). As a professional PA, nonmaleficence and maximizing potential benefits are two key conduct standards when we treat patients (Yeo et al., 2010). We should use properly medical skills to benefit patients and produce a satisfactory outcome. In practice, beneficence takes on many different forms. For example, in the emergency room, the first thing we should provide to an injured patient is the pain medication. When I studied emergency medicine in my country ten years ago, the textbook mentioned that do not provide pain medication to a patient if the diagnosis is not clear, because it will greatly cover up the condition and warning sign. However, practice is more complicate than textbooks, we shouldn’t apply it mechanically. In my ED rotation, the analgesic is usually used as the first treatment. Because untreated pain affects patient comfort and impairs consequences. To be a professional clinician, we should always concerns about the beneficence of patient. We should offer patient adequate and timely pain therapy when indicated.

The other principle can be used to support the professionalism is Dignity. Dignity is inherent to every human being and worthy of respect (Chochinov et al). It is concerned with patient’s sense of self-respect and self-worth (Royal College of Nursing, 2008). Instead of reducing, the needs for respect and dignity may grow even stronger when a person becomes ill or disabled, especially the older patient (American Sentinel University,2016). When I work in the clinic previously, some of my coworkers hold stereotyped and negative views about older patients, they assume those older patient cannot better understand and remember the information, and lose the act ability. Instead of explain the steps of procedure, they just doing it and rushing those older patients. They believe that those older patients cannot understand, so they do not want to waste time to communicate with them. If a family member is present, they will directly talk to that person and totally ignore the elderly patient. These types of behaviors cause the older patient suffer a loss of dignity. So I believe keep dignity intact is important for us when working as a professional PA, we have to let the patient feels honored, respected during the treatment, since the patient’s sense of dignity will affect his or her health care process.

In conclusion, ethics are fundamental to healthcare. We have to take medical ethics seriously, such as respect the patients, maintain their dignity and protect their rights.

 

References:

Dignity Model, based on research by Chochinov et al.

Dignity in the RCN model: Royal College of Nursing. (2008). Defending Dignity–Challenges and Opportunities for Nursing . London: Royal College of Nursing.

Yeo, Michael et al. (2010). Beneficence . In M Yeo et al. (eds.). Concepts and Cases in Nursing Ethics. [3rd edition] Ontario: Broadview Press, pp. 103-116.

Scheure, D. (2015). Medical Professionalism: Its Evolution and What It Means to Hospitalists. The Hospitalist. https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/122262/medical-professionalism-its-evolution-and-what-it-means-hospitalists

Hafferty, F. W., Papadakis, M., Sullivan, W., & Wynia, M. K. (2012). ABMS Definition of Medical Professionalism (Long Form). American Board of Medical Specialties.  https://www.abms.org/media/84742/abms-definition-of-medical-professionalism.pdf

American Sentinel University (2016). Patient Advocacy: Preserving Human Dignity https://www.americansentinel.edu/blog/2016/06/14/patient-advocacy-preserving-human-dignity/