HEALTH CARE

Literature Review about Ethical and Legal Issues In Health Care

Literature Review about Ethical and Legal Issues In Health Care

Introduction

Ethical and legal aspects in medical practice are gaining attention with the passage of time. Various ethical and legal issues raised by the new medical advances have provoked many debates among the various medical professionals and also in other fields of life. Not only in health care. The legal and medical aspects are gaining concern in all disciplines such as lawyers, philosophers, sociologists and the mass media at large.

Over the years, medical ethics have been developed into a defined framework, which acts a bridge between the medical treatment and the bedside. Medical ethics have devised guidelines that helps the doctors in identifying and resolving ethical; problems that may occur during medical practice. Along with ethical and moral obligations, doctors are also obliged to follow certain laws and legal regulations that form the legal framework of the medical practice. With the advancement in medical technology, legal and ethical considerations are an essential and significant part of health and medical care. The ethical and legal aspects are applicable in all areas of medical care and they both have unique parameters and distinct focus (Ellis & Kidd, 2000, pp. 26).

Over the years various programs such as end of life care and women's health have attracted the attention of many researchers to study the ethical, legal and social issues. Studies have stated that people who work in health care have to deal with ethical and legal issues on daily basis and these issues are influenced by the society and the various others legislations (Emson, 1988, pp. 89).

Many studies and researches have been conducted that have analyzed and examined the various ethical and legal issues doctors and nurses face in their medical practice. The objective of this literature review is to find out the ethical and issues faced by nurses during their medical practice and how can these issues be reduced in order to improve the quality of health care provided to patients (Komesaroff, 1993, pp. 28)

The literature review will address research questions related to the ethical and legal issues faced by doctors and nurses. The issues are:

What kind of ethical issues are faced by nurses in treating a critically ill person?

What kind of legal issues are faced by nurses in treating a critically ill person?

Methodology

For the literature review, I have used various medical databases in order to collect accurate and authentic information about the legal and ethical issues prevailing in the health care industry. Many databases such as medicine net, sage and spinger link. Our literature review is based on medical articles that have been taken from various publications. The search was conducted by using the basic terms such as ethical issues and legal issues in health care. The search was adjusted according to the manuals of the databases used and filters

The main objective of the research was to highlight and illustrate the various ethical and legal issues that nurses have to face when treating ...