The Relationship Between Ethics Committee and Patients` Care
Doctors usually have an excessively massive role in ensuring their patients` wellbeing. However, some situations typically get out of hand, sometimes when a patient is not responsive enough. When the situation gets out of hand, and a patient’s life is at stake, the doctors often do not hesitate to put them on life support machines to revive them. Long before implementing the Patient Self-Determination Act, families used to decide on the fate of their loved ones, whether to plug out the machine or to keep the patient on the life support machine.
Thanks to the said Act, patients can now decide whether to be renewed or assign someone else to decide on their fate when they are unable to talk or respond. Most importantly, we now have the Ethics Committee that plays a vital role in HealthCare facilities. The ethics committee was specially ordained for the following purposes; firstly, they often advise on what to do next. Sometimes doctors get so overwhelmed with work and may need help deciding what to do with an unresponsive patient.
Secondly, they assist in implementing a practical solution before doing what is best for the patients. They help doctors in implementing solutions. Thirdly, they help in seeking consensus in arriving at an important decision regarding a patient. Moreover, they give reassurance on a procedure that had already been implemented. By doing this, they instill more confidence in doctors and make them panic less. Lastly, the ethics committee suggests a more empirical formula for implementing a doctor’s solution that had already been discussed.
Therefore, in regards to patients` care, the ethic committee will help the doctors decide on whether to resuscitate the patient or not, will give practical solutions to the problem at hand, will advise the patient’s doctors or guarantee them that their answers will help ease the situation and will help the doctors reach a consensus on whether to resuscitate the patient or not.
References
Courtwright, A. M., Robinson, E. M., Feins, K., Carr-Loveland, J., Donahue, V., Roy, N., & McCannon, J. (2016). Ethics committee consultation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 13(9), 1553-1558.
Marcus, B. S., Carlson, J. N., Hegde, G. G., Shang, J., & Venkat, A. (2016, March). Evaluation of Viewpoints of Health Care Professionals on the Role of Ethics Committees and Hospitals in the Resolution of Clinical Ethical Dilemmas Based on Practice Environment. In HEC forum (Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 35-52). Springer Netherlands.