Health care administrators are confronted with ethical dilemmas and difficult decision making during their work. As we have already discovered, there are important interactions between ethical behaviors and legal issues. Health care administrators need to understand the relationships as well as the distinct differences. Health care institutions have ethics committees that play a central role in the protection of patient’s rights, the organization as a whole, and its staff.

Instructions

Imagine you work as a professional health care administrator in a large medical center. You have been asked to present a paper at a professional conference on medical ethics and caregiver-patient encounters. You must write a paper about a significant physician-patient ethical dilemma in a medical setting, defending the decision and conclusions made.

Below is a resource with multiple ethical case studies that involved patients, their families, and members of the interdisciplinary team. Choose one of the scenarios on this site, or select a case of your own choosing from another resource.

• Medical Ethics and Physician-Patient Encounters: Case Studies and Best Practices.

Your paper should be 3–5 pages and should include a title page and references, for a total of 5–7 pages.

Strayer Writing Standards

This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course.

Grading Criteria

The grading criteria for this executive summary is as follows. It must include the elements listed below, so be sure to address each point. You may also want to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion in the scoring guide to see how your work will be assessed:

1. Prepare a brief from the perspective of a lead administrator dealing with an ethical dilemma.
2. Apply ethical and moral theories to a case study involving a patient and caregivers.
3. Outline the ethical concerns and potential outcomes in a selected ethical dilemma.
4. Propose a solution to mitigate the issues raised in a selected ethical dilemma.
5. Defend the solution from an ethical standpoint.
6. Use at least three peer-reviewed articles less than five years old.
7. Provide appropriate in-text citations and reference section.
8. Meet clarity, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements.