Individual Right Versus the Collective Good Custom Essay

Individual Right Versus the Collective Good

Most of the recent successes in improving the public’4 s health have had to address the tension of individual rights versus the collective good. Anti-smoking campaigns and laws banning smoking in public places protect people from the negative health effects of second-hand smoke, yet some believe that they infringe on the individual rights of those who choose to smoke. Requiring childhood immunizations has helped prevent diseases such as polio and measles, but some parents assert that they have the right to decide if being immunized is in the best interest of their children.

This tension also exists in the allocation of scarce resources, from providing adequate staff coverage to making decisions about the amount of health care to provide. Given the nurse’s involvement in policy and health care delivery, it is important to understand the dynamics of this tension, as well as the legal and ethical implications.

To prepare:

When have you encountered a tension between the individual right and the collective good in your nursing practice?

With information from the Learning Resources in mind, consider relatively recent examples of health care policy that demonstrate this tension. For this Discussion, select one example of timely health care policy that allows you to evaluate the tension between individual rights and the collective good. Conduct additional research as necessary using credible websites and the Walden Library.

Use at least 2 peer review articles.
Write a one page cohesive response that addresses the following:

In the first line of your posting, identify a health care policy.

Explain the tension between individual rights and the collective good.

Analyze the ethical and legal considerations of the policy.

Readings

Course Text: Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach
Chapter 13, “Medical Ethics and Rationing of Health Care” This chapter discusses the four principles of medical ethics—beneficence, malfeasance, autonomy, and justice, and views current health care conditions through these lenses. Distributive justice, allocation of limited health care resources, rationing, and the ethics of health care financing are also examined.

Article: Bae, S., & Brewer, C. (2010). Mandatory overtime regulations and nurse overtime. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 11(2), 99–107.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. The authors examine the effect of government regulations on health care issues by studying nurse overtime. They discovered that states with mandatory overtime regulations had higher total RN work hours.
Article: Blum, J. D., & Talib, N. (2006). Balancing individual rights versus collective good in public health enforcement. Medicine & Law, 25(2), 273–281.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. This article examines the balance of public good and individual liberty through the examples of policies regarding communicable disease and childhood immunization. The impact of the U.S. Supreme Court Case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts on health care policy is discussed.
Article: Pauly, B. (2008). Harm reduction through a social justice lens. International Journal of Drug Policy, 19(1), 4–10.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. The author discusses the ethical issue of marginalized groups, such as the homeless, and their barriers to health care. The philosophy of harm reduction and various social justice theories are examined as possible guides to a policy initiative.
Article: Ruger, J. P. (2008). Ethics in American health 2: An ethical framework for health system reform. American Journal of Public Health, 98(1), 1756–1763.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Article: Wieck, K. L., Oehler, T., Green, A., & Jordan, C. (2004). Safe nurse staffing: A win-win collaboration model for influencing health policy. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 5(3), 160–166.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Optional Resources

Book: Fowler, M. (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses: Interpretation and application. M. D. M. Fowler (Ed.). Silver Spring, MD: The American Nurses Association, Inc.
Article: O’Connor, J. C., MacNeil, A., Chriqui, J. F., Tynan, M., Bates, H., & Eidson, S. K. (2008). Preemption of local smoke-free air ordinances: The implications of judicial opinions for meeting national health objectives. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 36(2), 403–412.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Article: Rogers, E. M., & Peterson, J. C. (2008). Diffusion of clean indoor air ordinances in the southwestern United States. Health Education & Behavior, 35(5), 683–697.
Article: Trentham, M. (2009). Patient abandonment—What is it really? ASBN Update, 13(1).