Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare and the Imperative of Cultural Competence - Essay Sample

Health care workers frequently come across an ethical dilemma in their field of work. The moral dilemma involves where alternatives conflict with each other despite what clinicians do, and they end up compromising some ethical principles (Ganz et al., 2015). Moral principles are considered to be the most crucial part of a clinician's practice. They are set standards that guide nurses and health care workers in making proper decisions when assessing the consequences of their actions. Analyzing the effects of one's action provides the basic elements for decision making. Basically, ethics helps us determine what is wrong and right for society's greater benefit (Ganz et al., 2015).

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A culture involves shared values and principles which dictate how a particular group of people should behave. Culture keeps on evolving (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). When dealing with a patient, it is crucial for health care workers to know their patients' culture. Prior knowledge of their culture will help the clinicians with diagnosis and also with the treatment plan (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). All cultures have beliefs about health and what causes particular illnesses (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). They also know how these diseases should be treated. Differences in the patients' culture affect their perception and attitude about medical care. Patients and their families bring ideas about their culture and have beliefs about treatment and medication (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015).

For instance, In American culture, they believe that most diseases result from natural scientific phenomena. They think that microorganisms cause disease. They root for medical treatment because they believe it saves lives. In American families, they allow one to make medical choices. Besides, they rely on modern technology to examine and treat the disease. In the Chinese community, the nurses should be aware that the eldest person in the family makes decisions all matters, including health. These decisions sometimes may not be of best interest to the patient.

In many cases, the decisions of these particular members of the family are not questioned. Among these communities, harmony is an essential value in the family, and authority is respected. The behavior of one member of the family reflects the other members. In the case of diseases such as mental illnesses, the people from these families prefer to keep quiet rather than seek medical attention because they believe that this will shame the other family members. Among the Chinese people, they are not allowed to perform surgery or bring foreign organs in their bodies.

Withholding information from a patient is so unethical, nurses face this ethical dilemma, especially when the patient's family requests them. For example, the 68-year-old Cuban man's family asked the nurse that they should not let their father aware. Their request placed the nurse in a medical dilemma, making them lose their job. In America, professional medical ethics requires open and free communication between the doctors and the patients. Good communication flow in health care helps to build trust and relationships between the physicians and the patient. The doctors felt that the patient should be made aware of their condition to avoid creating conflict in physicians' obligations which helps promote and protect the patients' welfare. The medical professionals also felt that they should ask the patient what they wanted to respect his wish. Family members should make decisions for patients in an event where they are not able to make those decisions themselves.

The Cuban families feel remorseful for not letting their father know about the disease. In Chinese culture, the family has the right to make decisions for the family members. The eldest child in the family is responsible for making such decisions. Most of the time, they followed protocol in such situations, and the father was to be told of his illness. Withholding the information from their father, they felt it was not right. The father was the head of the family, and he could make his own decision because he was also responsible for making other family members.

The ethics of American medical professionals require them to keep their patients informed on their health conditions. Failure to let patients know their diagnosis means that the health care workers are violating the ethical principles. Violating ethical principles can make one lose their job because it is unethical (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). In American culture, doctors are allowed to be open with patients and communicate directly with them. On the other hand, Cuban culture does not allow the doctors to inform the patients about the diagnosis before consulting with the family members. In return, this conflicts the medical professionals' ethics and the Cuban culture as well. Cuban's belief in authority makes it difficult for American doctors because of the American culture different from the Cubans. Anyone in American family set up can make a decision provided the decision is logical and necessary. In Cuban culture, harmony with everyone is valued. Even when the family’s patients disagree with the doctors, recommendations they follow what they are advised, and in some cases take the treatment and fail to heed the doctors' advice.

The American medical professionals lacked knowledge about the Cuban culture. As a result, they failed to know things such as how harmony and authority are essential to the Cubans. They did not realize that although most of the Cubans were westernized, some still relied on traditional medicine. For instance, their father was 68 years old and was diagnosed with cancer. Maybe, they opted the traditional medicine other than undergoing chemotherapy, which would make him experience a lot of pain. The doctors did not know that the Cubans appreciated authority and were very strict. The family members failed to let their father know about his condition to protect him. In their opinion, telling them would make the father more worried, and on his condition, they would instead not let him know so that he would focus on getting better.

Congruency involves the process, which ensures significant interaction between the provider and client levels (Arbour et al., 2015). Congruence, especially on culture, is based on the fact that cultural competence is always revolving, and providers should continue improving their communication quality, leading to improved care. Due to changes in our culture, health professionals should keep up with people's culture and way of life (Arbour et al., 2015). The medical professionals should be provided with educators to develop cultural awareness, knowledge, and sensitivity.

The health care providers should try to understand the Cuban cultures well. Doing this will help them interact with the family correctly, and in the case of future incidences, they will be able to interact with those families well (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). Health care workers should learn the importance of authority in a family set up. When addressing people mostly from the Asian communities, they will know what is expected (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015). They should also try to understand the views of peoples, families, and all communities in general. Doing this will help bridge the cultural differences between health care providers and patients. In return, it will ensure efficient health care between the professional medical providers and the patients. It will also help build healthy, trustful, and long-lasting relationship between the doctors and the patients and their families. The medical professionals should appreciate diversity, and in turn, it will help them become more competent in their work line. The increasing diversity makes it difficult for health care providers to offer quality health care because people are adamant about their beliefs, and sometimes it becomes difficult to save lives. Despite this, health care workers should ensure cultural competence to enhance quality health care.

References

Arbour, M., Kaspar, R. W., & Teall, A. M. (2015). Strategies to promote cultural competence in distance education. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(4), 436-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659614547201

Dauvrin, M., & Lorant, V. (2015). Leadership and cultural competence of healthcare professionals: a social network analysis. Nursing research, 64(3), 200. doi: 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000092

Ganz, F. D., Wagner, N., & Toren, O. (2015). Nurse middle manager ethical dilemmas and moral distress. Nursing ethics, 22(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733013515490