Medical Ethics
An ethics committee is a group of individuals tasked with formulating policies that guide practices with an organization. An ethics committee governs the conduct of professionals within the medical field. Organ procurement and transplantation network host an ethics committee aims at guiding its professionals’ practices. The members of the committee include the regional representatives of the organization and a board member. The committee also hosts a liaison who links the employees with the management. Medical and clinical personnel face difficult situations of deciding what is right or wrong in their practice. Ethics committees seek to resolve such circumstances and give clear directions on what to do in particular cases (Rasoal, Skovdahl, Gifford, & Kihlgren, 2017).
The organ procurement and transplantation network ethics committee is tasked with guiding the practices involved in the organization. Organ transplantation, donation, distribution and procurement are some of the practices governed by the committee. The ethics committee works to ensure that all these practices are conducted in line with a clear set of principles. The ethics committee handles all concerns raised in regards to these ethical practices. The ethics committee relays suggestions to the board of management and later implements the particular policies among the employees. All consultations about the conduct of employees are handled by the ethics committee, although it does not handle individual disputes raised by patients.
The ethics committee, in particular addresses ethical concerns related to organ transplant. Some of these ethical concerns include privacy and confidentiality of the patients’ medical procedures. The ethics committee also addresses the issue of liability. Another tasked addressed by the ethics committee is one involving the priority of patients in the waitlist. The issue of responsible decision determines who and when one appears as a priority in the waitlist of the organization. The organization also receives organs from dying donors. The ethics committee provides guidelines in the manner in which such issues are handled. Generally, the ethics committee is concerned with the conduct of medical personnel regarding organ donation and transplantation. The committee ensures that clinical professionals maintain competency in their practices (Network, 2020).
The health care staff and the patient or family can initiate the ethics consult. However, the ethics consult cannot be related to individuals’ issues. The ethics committee fails to address individual problems instead tends to emphasize ensuring organizational proficiency. Regional representatives initiate ethical consult affecting their particular regions. All policies either revised or brought up are after getting approval from the board of directors.
References
Network, O. P. (2020). Ethics Committee. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/members/committees/ethics-committee/
Rasoal, D., Skovdahl, K., Gifford, M., & Kihlgren, A. (2017). Clinical Ethics Support for Healthcare Personnel: An Integrative Literature Review. HEC Forum 29(4), 313–346.