Medical Informatics and Place

Ethical Issues in EMS While one might not think so, there are ethical issues galore when it comes to the emergency medical services (EMS) sphere. Indeed, there is a valid question when it comes to the obligations that arise during the job and what must or should be done when those obligations conflict. Given that eventuality, there can and should be an analysis of what to do when such a situation arises and how to properly react and make the right decision.

Whatever decision is made, there has to be an ensuring that the needs of the patients as well as the organizations in question are being properly balanced and prioritized. While the aforementioned balancing act can be difficult to pull off, it is something that any proper practitioner in the field must strive to accomplish. Analysis Many EMS personnel and managers are prone to rely on spur-of-the-moment judgement and reason when it comes to the making of decisions.

However, there is a lot to be said of having "standard practices" and go-to protocols in place when certain situations arise. It prevents the happenstance of not being sure what to do and why and can only help an EMS professional or manager that is under pressure while also unsure of which decision to make and for what reasons. It is a way to inoculate the EMS professional from having to worry about making the wrong choice as they simply need to follow the protocol.

Indeed, while there might be some situations where this would be less than wise and ethical if the prescribed protocol does not make rational or ethical sense. However, this is not usually the case and the proper protocols are what should be followed. Even so, the EMS professionals and managers in the field need to know what those protocols are and to what situations they can and do apply as they come up.

Having a defined and definite set of rules when it comes to things like termination of resuscitation, whether and when sirens or lights should be used and so forth are all things where the rules are commonly defined in advance and should be followed. This does not mean that the rules and protocols will not change. However, those changes will be handled by the proper parties and with the right amount of due diligence (Becker, Aswegan, Bradley & Schoenwetter, 2013).

When it comes to ethics and why things should be done in a certain way when it comes to the EMS field, there is a lot to be said about having principles and ideals that are not flexible. There are many that say that having proper medical ethics is simply not possible when one does not have firm guidelines and rules in place. Having firms rules in place by no means assures that everyone and anyone will agree with what the EMS staff does or does not do.

Further, the rights and wishes of the patients are not irrelevant. On the other hand, there are certain guidelines and pathways that EMS professionals can and should hold themselves to so as to maintain a defined and proper set of rules. Indeed, what is rational and normal to some will not be nearly as neat and clean to someone else (Macklin, 2014). Part and parcel of making all of this work is building an EMS culture that is reasonable, strong and ethical all at the same time.

If the culture of an EMS group is not strong and the rules are not firmly in place for the same, this will only lead to bigger problems down the road as the protocols and culture will wilt under pressure. Instead, there needs to be alignment and a transformation of the involved culture (Nelson, Taylor & Walsh, 2014).

While there is a shared interest and the pool of stakeholders that are concerned about EMS is quite large, there has to be a balance when it comes to EMS in general, health sciences, medical informatics and healthcare professions (Byrd & Winkelstein, 2014). Conclusion As also stated by Byrd, the deployment of any EMS service has to be done in a way that is in alignment with the norms of the profession and the laws of the relevant jurisdictions. There will be.