Ethical Issues in Healthcare - Assignment Example

Ethical Issues in Healthcare First Middle initial and of Prof. First and of lecturer March 17, 20121. HIPAA was passed into law in 1996 under the Clinton administration. It aims to protect personal health information of people and grant access only to authorized personnel (Purtilo & Doherty, 2002). HIPAA also ensures that people who have lost their jobs or are between jobs are able to continue having access to quality healthcare. Implementation of HIPAA has decreased the cost of health insurance and improved the overall quality of care.2. HITECH was created to encourage healthcare organizations to begin using electronic health records (EHRs) instead of paper records.

In terms of impact, it is estimated that widespread use of EHRs will save about $77.8 billion in healthcare cost annually, which is about 5% of the total health care expenditure in the U.S. (Baron, Fabens, Schiffman & Wolf 225). Implementing HITECH will involve careful planning and training of health care professionals. Regular quality checks and audits must also be conducted to ensure accuracy and data integrity.3. The main components of communication are context, sender, message, medium, recipient and feedback.

The primary purpose of communication is to disseminate information and express one’s thoughts or emotions.4. Factors essential for shared decision making are: appreciation of the patient’s rights and responsibilities in the decision making process, adequate knowledge about patient condition and awareness about various options and implications of the choices made (Clark, Nelson, Valerio, Gong, Taylor-Fishwick & Fletcher, 2009). Shared decision making is critical in nursing as it ensures commitment, ownership, accountability, and responsibility for the process and outcomes in patient care (Hannon, 2009).5. In my interaction with an ICU patient, the patient was unable to speak and provide feedback verbally.

Therefore we relied on gestures, head nods, and mouthing words to communicate with each other. To confirm her responses, I replicated her gesture to affirm the meaning. This patient interaction made me realize that feedback is very important.  ReferencesBaron, R. J., Fabens, E. L., Schiffman, M. & Wolf, E. (2005). Electronic Health Records: Just Around the Corner? Or Over the Cliff? Annals of Internal Medicine, 143(3), 222-226. Clark, N. M., Nelson, B. W., Valerio, M. A., Gong, M., Taylor-Fishwick, J. C., & Fletcher, M. (2009). Consideration of shared decision making in nursing: A review of clinicians’ perceptions and interventions.

The Open Nursing Journal, 3, 65-75. Hannon, B. (2009). Inside scoop from our experts: Give nurses autonomy with a shared decision making model. HCPro. Retrieved from http://www.hcpro.com/NRS-228282-3238/Inside-scoop-from-our-experts-Give-nurses-autonomy-with-a-shared-decisionmaking-model.htmlPurtilo, R. B. & Doherty, R. F. (2002). Ethical dimensions in the health professions. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders.