Discussion Prompt 1: This week, you learned about numerous ethical dilemmas in the healthcare field. These dilemmas are the controversial or “hot button” topics in the medical field today. They range from questions about proper patient care and treatment to scientific improvements in medicine to decisions about life and death.

For this discussion prompt, you will use the St. Martha’s General Hospital Scenario. Choose any scenario, outline the facts from the scenario and how the situation was handled by the St. Martha’s employee or employees. Then, discuss other ways that the situation could have been or should have been handled by a healthcare employee. In this section, make sure to discuss whether a law exists that needs to be followed by the employee. If no law exists, discuss how the employee can determine the answer using ethical theories. Finally, discuss the different viewpoints on the dilemma that could change the answer of how the situation should be handled by an employee. These viewpoints can be beliefs based on law, religion, morals, needs of government or society, social needs, financial repercussions, etc.

Click to view the presentation scenario, then answer your week 3 discussion prompts.

Note: For both prompts, please complete the Week 3 Outbreak Scenario located in your Week 3 Assignments. Once the scenario is complete, you can answer both prompts.

Discussion Prompt 2 After viewing the outbreak scenario, would you have handled the situation differently? What questions would you have asked, or what would you have changed? Where could we see this situation occurring in the real world?

Discussion Prompt 3: Now that you have completed the outbreak scenario, what is another type of waterborne disease that could potentially harm humans, animals, or the environment? How would you even know if there was an outbreak? What steps are needed to control a potential outbreak? Who would be the key people involved in this type of scenario?