The Obligation of Health Workers to Patients

There are different circumstances under which a medical physician may be forced to get the consent from a different person other than the patient. There are several factors or rather circumstances that permit this condition. These factors include: in case of an unconscious patient: under this scenario the physician is made to make urgent decisions especially when the patient’s health has the greatest probability to get worse  seriously and, therefore, fatal. It’ s, however, wise to understand that for this exception to apply, the underlying emergent condition should be in dire need of instant level of attention with insufficient time to obtain consent from another authorized person, who ranges from a husband in case of a wife or vice versa. In case of an emergent blood transfusion, the court may give consent to have the patient receive blood especially in cases where both the family and the patient are reluctant to have the transfusion citing religious limitations (Kurt & Liang, 1999). In case of a conscious patient, the consent may not be possible when it is discovered that the conscious patient is unable to comprehend his or her own medical condition, that is, when the patient is termed as medically incompetent. In this scenario, the physicians may be forced to obtain consent from close relatives. The last scenario upon which a patient cannot give an informed consent is in the case of a minor patient. Physicians are not granted the permission of treating minor patients without the consent of their parents. In case of emergent situations with a minor patient, the legal consent should be obtained from the parent or the guardian.

The short policy that should be developed to address ethical problems when dealing with the rights of patients should go like: “any clinical worker or physician should always strive to act in accordance with the rules and regulation as stipulated by the institution during the provision of their service to the patients at hand so as to ensure that the patient’s rights are at all times observed and respected as required.”

 The following are the obligations that health workers have when dealing with patients: obligation concerning documents which stipulates clearly that the health worker should at all times have information which is related to a patient’s examination and treatment. The health worker is also obligated to maintain confidentiality regarding the health state of the patient as well as information that is related to the process of receiving health services by the patient. The last obligation that a health worker should affirm is the right and obligation of developing professionalism during the provision of health care services which must be  done  in keeping with the current state of science and its advances.