Ethics, Law and Professional Issues

As a healthcare practitioner, you will face a broad range of professional dilemmas in your everyday practice. From seeking consent to upholding patient confidentiality, you'll rely on your knowledge of ethics, the law and professional codes of conduct to guide your actions. Balancing these three strands can be difficult, but with detailed scenarios and accessible discussion, this book guides you through the complexities of practice. Taking a practice-based approach, the text explores the combination of ethical, legal and professional issues which characterise the field of healthcare. A range of experienced contributors come together to provide: a- detailed analysis of confidentiality, accountability, consent, capacity and justice, all grounded within the daily practice context; a- authoritative guidance through discussion of legal cases, excerpts from statutes and extracts from professional guidelines; a- realistic scenarios drawn from a range of health settings, unravelling and illustrating the guidelines, statutes and policies which influence practice; a- advice on balancing the conflicting pressures of the modern healthcare context, from facing time limitations to challenging the unprofessional practice of others. Ethics, Law and Professional Issues puts you at the centre of some of a practitioner's most difficult decisions. It is therefore an essential resource for any student of healthcare looking to develop an ethically, legally and professionally sound approach to practice.