HCS335 Health Care Ethics And Social Responsibility

Question: Throughout this course, you will engage in a Final Project, which requires you to apply critical thinking and written communication skills related to health care law, ethics, and policy in health care administration. This week, you will review the assignments involved in the Final Project, which requires you to write a letter to a member of the United States Congress (or other legislative body where you live), influencing him or her to support or oppose a current health care policy issue. Analyze the conflict among personal autonomy, public safety, and health care policy Analyze ethical issues related to personal autonomy, public safety, and health care policy Answer: Introduction Influenza virus is responsible for the common flue disease that is an infectious one. Vaccination is the most convenient way of combatting against the virus. A vaccine can reduce the chances of influenza disease by almost 90%. However that is dependent on various factors. The centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) suggest that, all the health care professionals in US should be vaccinated against the virus every year. However, the strategy of mandatory vaccination is still a matter of argument as this pits the patient safety, health care professionals and also hampers the employee relations. The health care administrators are planning to execute the mandatory influenza vaccination policy. Discussion According to a report of US News (2013) it was seen that, there are many other risk factors with which Americans are fighting every day. The vaccination of the health care professionals is only due to protect the patients from infection. One of the most important cause of this controversy is that, people are unable to understand the risks of influenza infections. In US, almost 5-20% of total population is affected by this infection and the rate is about 3000-50,000 per year. Moreover, the mortality rate is higher than that of the mortality rate of AIDS. Hospitals are very vulnerable place for those who are older and already very sick. That is the reason the mandatory vaccination of the health care personnel is no-brainer. From the editorial of Cheng & Worth (2014), it is seen that, they strongly recommend the vaccination to protect the patients from influenza. However, the vaccination is neither enough nor necessary to prevent flu and other respiratory virus infection among the patients. The influenza vaccine is not capable to give complete protection and so that it can be said that mandatory vaccination is not necessary. Commonly it is said that, vaccination can give 70-90% protection. However, in more recent trials it is see that, the estimated effectiveness of the vaccine is almost 59% (approx.) and the efficacy is less than 16%. Although,they strongly recommend the vaccination for influenza to protect the patients from the infection, they do not think that, mandatory vaccination is justified. From the editorial of Hooper, Breathnach & Iqbal (2014), vaccination is recommended to reduce the absenteeism of the employee and rate of infection among the health care professionals. In addition it is seen that, the scheme of voluntary vaccination have failed to gain success, while the mandatory vaccination is proven more successful in terms of vaccinating the health care professionals. Ethical Issues The ethical issues that come into play when vaccination is mandatory, are breaching of rights of one individual as he or she does not wanted to be vaccinated. In addition, there are some side effects posed by the vaccination and it may enhance the risk of altering patient’s bodily integrity. However, the health care professionals are also responsible to protect the patients and as well as their co-workers from infection by taking influenza vaccine. Conclusion Hence, it can be concluded that, despite the availability of researches, documenting the efficiency and the necessity of mandatory vaccination against influenza, there still lies a need to incorporate mandatory vaccination for the purpose of ensuring optimum environmental and health conditions, consideration the nature of rapid transmission associated with the disease. However, prior to the execution of mandatory vaccination procedures, sufficient research must be conducted considering the physiological effects it may yield upon the concerned individuals. Further approval by appropriate and reputed healthcare committees may be required considering the mandatory nature of the procedure. However, it must be remembered that healthcare practitioners possess the final autonomy in clinical decision-making due to their responsibility towards maintenance of optimum healthcare conditions (Looper et al., 2017). Hence, to conclude, mandatory vaccination of influenza must be incorporated. References Bloom, J. (2013, February 4). Mandate the flu vaccine for healthcare workers. U.S. News. Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/02/04/mandate-flu-vaccines-for-healthcare-workers. Cheng, A. C., & Worth, L. J. (2014). Mandatory influenza vaccination of healthcare workers: is it necessary or sufficient to protect patients?. Healthcare Infection, 19(3), 114-115. Hooper, C. R., Breathnach, A., & Iqbal, R. (2014). Is there a case for mandating influenza vaccination in healthcare workers?. Anaesthesia, 69(2), 95-100. Looper, P., George, D., Johnson, E. J., & Conway, S. E. (2017). Student and faculty perceptions about mandatory influenza vaccinations on a health sciences campus. Journal of American College Health, 65(7), 513-517.

HCS335 Health Care Ethics And Social Responsibility

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