our management class today was on clinical ethics. i had taken a medical ethics course while in college so was generally familiar with the basic ethnical principles and terms, particularly beneficence and nonmaleficence. what stuck out more to me this time around was that with beneficence, the ethnical principle of doing good, and nonmaleficence, the ethical principle of doing no harm, it may require actions that are "out of the norm," feel uncomfortable, set limits, and include not being able to honor patient and family goals. with customer service always top of mind, it begs the question, "can doing the right thing be bad customer service?"
this wasn't news to me or anything, especially after working in healthcare for a decade. we walk this line every day. we're faced with situations and decisions that not only impact ourselves and our organizations, but ultimately our patients and their families. we strive for what's good and right, even if it hurts to do so.
the interesting part, which i did not realize until i thought about it (ethics classes always make you do that, don't they?) was that while in school, we had all these examples and situations to discuss and debate, sometimes being assigned to support the side we did not agree with. it used to pain me to do this. but it taught me a very important lesson that was reiterated today: doing the right thing is not always easy; it doesn't always "feel good"; we don't always have to agree with the facts, but we do have to agree with what we believe to be honorable.
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