Discuss how personal morals and professional ethics can conflict for a healthcare provider. Give an example of when a healthcare provider would need to balance his or her personal morals and professional ethics.

Many people use the terms morals and ethics interchangeably but in real sense the two words have different meaning.

Personal moral depicts an idea or opinion that's driven by a desire to be good which emanated from social groups, religious belief etc.

While ethics are sets of rules, guidelines and regulations that defines allowable actions or correct behavior in a particular profession such as healthcare.

There may be conflicts of personal moral and professional ethics in the area of medical treatment of the VIP, hospital donors and celebrity patients and the general patients of a particular healthcare service provider. Some healthcare employees seems to have a belief that everybody is equal irrespective of your position in the society. This may contradict the ethical code of that particular healthcare service provider.

Healthcare service provider needs to balance their ethical professional and personal moral while dealing with patients.

To understand the social role of medicine and its ethics, it is important to recognize that the medical profession is a social artifact created by giving control over a set of knowledge, skills, powers and privileges exclusively to a select few who are entrusted to provide their services in response to the community’s needs and to use their distinctive tools for the good of patients and society.

Doctors are primarily trusted by patients because of their role.

Patients and society expect doctors to act in accordance with the “Standard of Care” which includes both adherence to the technical requirements dictated by evidence and clinical experience and the long standing ethical precepts of the profession, such as the duty to provide care, confidentiality, and non-judgmental regard. Patients and society rely upon physicians to meet that shared standard in all that they do. In other words, a patient who arrives in an Emergency Department does not

expect Catholic medicine from a Catholic physician, Jehovah’s Witness medicine from a Jehovah’s Witness physician, self-centered medicine from an egoist physician, or the laying on of hands from a physician who happens to believe in their power.

Patients reasonably expect good medicine that meets the patient’s need in accordance with the “Standard of Care” from every physician. This means that medical practice is not a matter of private judgment. Rather, medical decisions should be the ones that any competent physician facing a comparable clinical situation would endorse as a matter of professional

judgment. This means that any physician who took the commitments of the profession seriously should be willing to provide the same treatment for the patient.

Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and situations that they deal with in everyday life.

Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere to in respect of their interactions and business dealings in their professional life.

In some cases, personal and professional ethics may clash and cause a moral conflict. For example:

A doctor may not personally believe that the course of medical treatment chosen by a patient is the right one. However, under the Code of Ethics for the New Zealand Medical Association, he/she must respect the rights, autonomy and freedom of choice of the patient.