Question

Think of 3 examples of both ethical and legal circumstances where you can apply the concepts of beneficence and nonmaleficence. How do these concepts work within your examples to provide protection to both the organization and the patient?

Answer 1

ANSWER :

Beneficence and non maleficence play an important role in patient care to protect patient and hospital organizations from illegal activities. Beneficence is defined as the actions that are done for the benefits of others, it is used to prevent or protect others from harmful situations. Examples are : Resuscitate a person who is drowned in water, vaccinating to people against communicable diseases, educating community people about HIV AIDS, teaching people about hand washing techniques to prevent diseases, etc. On the other hand non maleficence is do not do any harm to patients. In the hospital scenario physicians provide appropriate treatments to patients which shows positive effects on patients health. Examples are : Doctor refusing to give the treatment which is non beneficial to patient, refusing by anesthetist to administer anesthesia to patient as he is not sure of how to inject the drug in the body of patient. Hence both beneficence and non maleficence are used to protect the lives of people and to protect from legal issues.