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What is ethics?
Moral standards of conduct; rules or principles that govern proper conduct
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What is meant by “conduct”?
- Comporting oneself or behaving in a certain way
- how you treat yourself
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why continuing education is an important ethical obligation for dental assistants.
things change
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How do ethics relate to dentistry?
Dental healthcare professionals should practice ethical behavior as they provide dental care to their patients.
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Ethics refers to?
what you should do, not what you must do. The law deals with what you must do.
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You have been learning personal ethics throughout your life in a variety of ways from the following sources:
- Basic instinct
- Parents
- Teachers
- Religion
- Observation of other people’s behavior
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Basic Principles of Ethics
Regard for justice
Promotion of well-being
Veracity
Confidentiality
Privacy
Continuing education
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Basic Principles of Ethics
Regard for self-determination:
A regard for self-determination (autonomy) includes the right to privacy, freedom of choice, and the acceptance of responsibility for one’s own actions
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Basic Principles of Ethics
nonmaleficence:
To “do no harm”
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Basic Principles of Ethics
beneficence:
Promotion of well-being
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Basic Principles of Ethics
Confidentiality:
- A property by which information relating to an entity or party is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes
- Confidentiality is a very important issue in the health profession
- Healthcare professionals have an obligation to respect the patient’s privacy
- However, conflicts involving the principle of confidentiality, such as in reporting suspected child or elder abuse, will arise
- Sometimes the patient’s right to confidentiality must be balanced against the rights of other individuals
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Reasons for a code of ethics?
- To demonstrate to the public the standard of conduct that can be expected from its members
- To increase the ethical consciousness and ethical responsibility of its members
- To guide its members in making informed ethical decisions
- To establish a standard for professional judgment and conduct
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Examples of Unethical Behavior:
- Charging the patient for a full set of x-rays when only six films were taken (principle of justice)
- Pressuring a classmate into a decision (principle of autonomy)
- Refusing to help a classmate learn (principle of well-being)
- Harming another person by repeating gossip about him or her (principle of doing no harm)
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What is the Difference Between Ethics and Law?
Legal issues are settled with the use of laws and court decisions
Ethical issues are subject to individual interpretation with regard to the right or wrong of a particular situation
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To whom can you go for help in resolving ethical dilemmas that arise in your professional environment?
- Person that you trust
- (Your supervisor is one option.)
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Steps for Solving Ethical Dilemmas:
Step 1: Identify the alternatives
Step 2: Determine all implications
Step 3: Rank the alternatives
Step 4: Choose a course of action
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What is a standard of care?
A diagnostic and treatment process that a clinician should follow for a certain type of patient, illness, or clinical circumstance. In legal terms, it is the level at which the average prudent provider in a given community would practice. It is how similarly qualified practitioners would have managed the patient's care under the same or similar circumstances.)
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The healthcare-malpractice plaintiff must establish___________________
the appropriate standard of care and demonstrate that the standard of care has been breached.
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