Ethical Principles Of Virtue Ethics

The principles surrounding ethics involve health care professionals analysing problems they face and decide if an action or practice is deemed right or wrong. Health care professionals must always ensure they work within ethical principles highlighted within their profession (HCPC, 2016). Virtue ethics is a frame work which focuses upon the character of the person rather than the rightness of their actions (Pozgar, 2010). Deontology states the rightness of something is based on actions used to reach the point rather than result (Johnstone, 2015). Deontology perception in a health care is that a patient should never be treated as an object (Herring, 2014). Deontology is based on providing the best outcome you can as a health care professional,
For a service user to make an autonomous decision they need to be deemed as being competent, however the law states that every individual should be deemed as having capacity unless it is established that they lack capacity. (Mental Capacity Act 2005 code of practice,2007). This law applies to adults and children aged 16 and over, however Gillick states that children age 16 and under can consent or refuse treatment if they are deemed to understand the risks and benefits of the treatment offered (Hendrick and Wigens, 2004). Beneficence is the principle which states that the actions service providers take should promote good. Beneficence and non-maleficence are closely related in health care, which brings into discussion both legal and ethical issues Beneficence will help determine the balance of benefits against the risks and costs involved in the treatment of the service user which in a health care setting can help in the decision making of any treatment (Fry and Johnstone,
The ODP will become the voice of the service user, providing the patient information to make an informed choice throughout their perioperative journey.
Informed consent is fundamental when providing care ODP’s face many challenges in relation to this (Arnold and Boggs, 2007). The service user has a legal right to direct what happens to their own body, which is essential prior to any treatment being received, to do this the patient needs to hold enough information to allow them to make a choice regarding treatment they receive (Farmer and Lundy 2017).
This will include the patient giving their consent regarding their treatment, which is a legal requirement, however it also states that this consent can also come from an appropriate authority which can be a family member or a carer who has given prior permission to act on the servicer users’ behalf (DH,