Online Modules Rights of Patients and Carers

Question: Discuss about theOnline Modulesfor Rights of Patients and Carers. Answer: Rights of Patients and Carers In order to provide effective healthcare services to a patient, a practitioner has to adhere to standards of professional practice, legal regulations as well as ethical codes of conduct. These play a very significant role in safeguarding the interests of the practitioner, patient and their carers. When it comes to the ethical regulations, the healthcare provider is required to comply with the ethical standards of confidentiality and respect. Meaning, the patient should be treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve (Herring, 2007). Should there be any case of major decision making, the healthcare provider should not do it alone, but be ready to collaborate with the patient through seeking their opinion. At the same time, the healthcare provider has a mandate to inform the patient about their care, but refrain from revealing the patients private health information to other partys including the carers without the consent of the patient. It therefore means that in as much as the patient has a right to information, the healthcare provider still has a responsibility of strictly adhering to the principle of confidentiality (Burston, Tuckett, 2013). At no one time should the healthcare provider fail to adequately and timely equip the patient with all the information regarding the health. This is a fundamental healthcare right that no one deserves to be deprived at any given time. On the other hand, it is morally wrong for a healthcare provider to violate the standards and let other know about the patients privacy (Gold, Philip, McIver Komesaroff, 2009). Should that be done, the practitioner would have been declared to have acted in a violation of the ethical standards of practice. The only correct thing to do is to seek for the consent of the patient. Meaning, it is the client who has authority to decide if the private health information about them is to be revealed to others. Nevertheless, the healthcare provider can only go against the confidentiality standards in case the patient is incapacitated and is not in a position of making a sound and valid consent. The same can apply when attending to a minor who has no decision making capabilities and must be represented by the carers. For such a patient, a practitioner might be compelled to reveal private health information to the carers since in such situations; it is the carers with whom the practitioner can collaborate with to make important decisions regarding the health of the patient (Atkins, De Lacey Britton, 2014). So, should this happen, the healthcare practitioner would be justified to have done the right thing because it is exclusively aimed at saving the life of incapacitated patient who is not capable of contributing towards healthcare delivery. Reflection of How I Won My Personal Battle with Obesity How I Won My Personal Battle with Obesity is an article written by Berni Dymet and published by the bernidymet.com in July 2013. In this article, Berni presents a candid story of his battle with obesity. He says that, as an ordinary man, he was brought up in a society in which western poor diet was the order of the day. However, when he realized that he was the real cause of his woes, Berni made a choice to be a solution. To do so, he made a bold decision of changing his lifestyle to live in an extraordinary manner from the rest of his accomplices. So, apart from starving himself, he refrained from carbohydrates, ventured into crush dieting, and spent a large portion of his time to engage in physical exercises (Ogden, Carroll, Kit Flegal, 2012). This is how he managed to surprise himself, his family and the whole world by losing a record 25 kg. Indeed, How I Won My Personal Battle with Obesity is an insightful article that has a lot of lessons. First, it made me learn what obesity means to a patient. It gave me an opportunity to realize that from a patients perspective, obesity is viewed as a lifestyle disease that is caused by the choices made by individuals. As pointed out by the author, obesity is a lifestyle disease caused by human choice. The high rate at which people consume sugary foods expose them to diseases like obesity (Swinburn Wood, 2013). Worse still, many people still opt to lazy around and fail to engage in active physical activities. From Bernis perspective, I came to learn that obesity is a lifestyle disease. It is true that many people have lost their lives because of the choices that they make in life. For example, the use of poor diet is so unhealthy to individuals. It increases the chances of contracting lifestyle diseases that would otherwise be prevented from troubling their lives (Partonen, 2014). This justifies why many people suffer from obesity and other lifestyle diseases simply because they cannot adopt a healthy eating culture (Walls, Magliano, Stevenson, Backholer, Mannan, Shaw Peeters, 2012). References Atkins, K., De Lacey, S., Britton, B. (2014). Ethics and law for Australian nurses. CambridgeUniversity Press. Burston, A. S., Tuckett, A. G. (2013). Moral distress in nursing Contributing factors,outcomes and interventions. Nursing Ethics, 20(3), 312-324. Gold, M., Philip, J., McIver, S., Komesaroff, P. A. (2009). Between a rock and a hard place:exploring the conflict between respecting the privacy of patients and informing theircarers. Internal Medicine Journal, 39(9), 582-587. doi:10.1111/j.1445-5994.2009.02020.x Herring, J. (2007). Where are the carers in healthcare law and ethics? Legal Studies, 27(1), 51- doi: 10.1111/j.1748-121X.2006.00037.x Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Kit, B.K., Flegal, K.M. (2012). Prevalence of obesity and trendsin body mass index among US children and adolescents, 1999-2010. Jama, 307(5), 483-490. Partonen, T. (2014). Obesity= physical activity+ dietary intake+ sleep stages+ light exposure. Annals of medicine, 46(5), 245-246. Swinburn, B., Wood, A. (2013). Progress on obesity prevention over 20 years in Australia andNew Zealand. Obesity Reviews, 14(S2), 60-68. Walls, H.L., Magliano, D.J., Stevenson, C.E., Backholer, K., Mannan, H.R., Shaw, J.E., Peeters, A. (2012). Projected progression of the prevalence of obesity in Australia. Obesity, 20(4), 872-878.