Chapter 9 Reflection – Ethics and Safe Patient Handling and Mobility by Beth Furlong
Chapter 9: Ethics and Safe Patient Handling and Mobility by Beth Furlong of the book Health Care Ethics: Critical Issues for the 21st Century provides valuable insights into the ethics and safe handling of patients and mobility. Maintaining patient safety is among the major ethical obligations in nursing, alongside patient confidentiality, privacy, and security (Bani Issa et al., 2020). Regardless of the care settings, the major concern for patient care is to prevent as many risks of injury as possible. In this case, safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) of a patient is a concern for patients today. It is an issue that needs to be explored from various perspectives, including patient safety itself, as well as the professional, legal, and ethical perspectives. Besides safety being a concern for patients and their families, interprofessional injuries, especially among nurses, it remain an issue of concern within interprofessional care settings. As argued by Bakewell et al. (2020), from the context of care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, observing ethics in nursing care forms the basis of safe patient handling as well as the protection of the well-being of the healthcare professionals working in interprofessional care settings.
Are you interested in obtaining a unique copy of ” Chapter 9 Reflection – Ethics and Safe Patient Handling and Mobility by Beth Furlong “ ? Reach out to us.
Critique
Chapter 9 is very educative on the issue of safe patient handling and mobility. It well highlights the problems, the interventions applied towards improving the safety of patient handling and the major barriers SPHM faces within nursing care settings. It has also explained which and why best practices are a requirement in professional practice to achieve and ensure SPHM.
Going through the chapter, I have learned much about ethics and safe patient handling. A major thing I have learned is how heavily ethics and safe patient handling are intertwined. Ethics complement safe patient handling. Additionally, observing ethics guidelines and standards in nursing, such as beneficence and maleficence, guarantees the safety of the nurse during the handling of patients. However, in SPHM, beneficence and nonmaleficence may conflict with the principles of autonomy and dignity for the patient. In most cases, the patients depend on their caregivers and health professionals(Morrison & Furlong, 2019). It is hard to guarantee informed consent in cases where patient dependency is hard. Regardless, nurses remain accountable and responsible for the safe handling and mobility of the patient and their safety during the lifting and repositioning of the patient (Morrison & Furlong, 2019).
I can apply the ethics of safe patient handling and mobility when caring for an aged patient under assisted living conditions and an amputee patient. In both cases, the patients are required to be assisted to move. I would ensure that I utilize technologies that improve the safety of handling such patients to reduce the risk of harm when moving or repositioning them. I would also try my best to inform them of my intention to move them and obtain their consent before handling them. The ethical arguments for SPHM programs and behaviors include advocacy for observing the ethical concepts of nonmaleficence, beneficence, and social justice. These ethical concepts are interconnected to a large extent and seek to ensure the best care for the patient. They advocate for handling patients in a way that best benefits their health and reduces the risk of harm while ensuring each patient has equal access to care. Chapter 9 has great implications for my role as a physical therapy assistant. In physical therapy, there is a lot of direct patient handling, which creates major ethical concerns and challenges, especially regarding informed consent, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. The chapter has helped me understand the importance of adhering to the ethical principles and standards required in my professional practice and how upholding ethics can ensure SPHM. It also helps me understand the behaviors I should observe in my professional practice to guarantee patient safety and dignity during care delivery.
Conclusion
Chapter 9 has helped me understand the relationship between ethics and safe patient handling. Major ethical concerns related to SPHM are respect for patient dignity, ensuring care is beneficial to the patient, and reducing harm for both the patient and the healthcare professionals. Conclusively, the chapter is educative for physical therapy assistants as it can help them understand the ethics of SPHM as well as navigate the complex ethical issues and challenges in safe patient handling.
References
Bakewell, F., Pauls, M. A., & Migneault, D. (2020). Ethical considerations of the duty to care and physician safety in the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 22(4), 407–410. https://doi.org/10.1017/CEM.2020.376
Bani Issa, W., Al Akour, I., Ibrahim, A., Almarzouqi, A., Abbas, S., Hisham, F., & Griffiths, J. (2020). Privacy, confidentiality, security, and patient safety concerns about electronic health records. International Nursing Review, 67(2), 218–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/INR.12585
Morrison, E. E., & Furlong, E. (2019). Health care ethics : critical issues for the 21st century (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question
Ethics and Safe Patient Handling and Mobility by Beth Furlong
Objective: To critically replicate your thoughtfulness of the readings and your competence to rub on them to your health care ethics.
ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES (10%):
Students will judgmentally appraise the readings from Chapter 9 in your textbook. This assignment is intended to help you assess, examine, and spread the readings to your healthcare ethics, as well as become the foundation for all of your remaining assignments.
You need to read the article (in the additional weekly reading resources localized in the Syllabus and also in the Lectures link) assigned for week 1 and develop a 2-3-page paper reflecting your appreciation and ability to apply the readings to your ethics. Each paper must be typewritten in 12-point font and double-spaced with standard margins. Follow APA format 7th Edition, when referring to the selected articles and include a reference page.