According to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), the occupational therapy ethics’ code was designed to take care of the frequently occurring ethical issues in practice, research, and education (Reitz et al., 2020). For instance, professional ethics states that an occupational therapist should evaluate and plan specific interventions for clients specific to their needs (Estes, 2014). Besides, the personnel shall reevaluate the client to see if there is a need for revision of the intervention promptly. The occupational code of ethics also requires occupational therapy personnel to provide all the services within his scope of professional competence to the patient in time (Reed et al., 2010).
An example of a contemporary case is when a patient has a Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR), which instructs physicians not to conduct CPR on the patient if their hearts stop beating or if they stop breathing (Henderson, 2017). The DNR in question does not have any further instructions on other treatments (Breen et al., 2008). For instance, the case of a Florida man who was taken to a healthcare unit with a DNR tattoo on his chest in 2017. This led to ethical dilemmas among the doctors because they were unsure if the patient was capacitated to choose DNR. Therefore, despite the man's inability to talk, the ICU staff decided to seek ethical consultation on the case and hence honor the message.
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Moreover, ethical cases may arise when there is a pandemic like the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Ethical concerns may come up in deciding whom to treat when the patient's demands outweigh the capacity of supplying them with all the services needed (Wells, 2007). Besides, while making these decisions, doctors are ethically required to protect against age-based bias even though the elderly may be more at risk than the youth (The University of Texas, 2016) . This brings about an ethical dilemma whereby the consequences of each action they decide to take is unknown since each action taken may lead to ethical concerns.
References
Breen, G. M., Loyal, M., Littleton, V., Seblega, B., Paek, S. C., Meemon, N., ... & Wan, T. T. (2008). An ethical analysis of contemporary healthcare practices and issues. Online Journal of Health Ethics , 5 (2), 3.
Estes, J. P. (2014). Occupational Therapists' Experiences with Ethical and Occupation-based Practice in Hospital Settings.
Henderson, C. (2017). Florida man's 'Do Not Resuscitate' tattoo creates ethical dilemma. Retrieved 4 August 2020, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/02/florida-mans-do-not-resuscitate-tattoo-creates-ethical-dilemma-doctors/915916001/ .
Reed, K., Brandt, L., Estes, J., Foster, L., Homenko, D., Jackson, C., & Slater, D. (2010). Occupational therapy code of ethics and ethics standards (2010). American Journal of Occupational Therapy , 64 (6).
Reitz, S. M., Scaffa, M. E., & Dorsey, J. (2020). Occupational Therapy in the Promotion of Health and Well-Being. The American journal of occupational therapy: official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association , 74 (3).
The University of Texas. (2016, January 5). Ethical Issues in Healthcare . Retrieved from The University of Texas at Tyler: https://online.uttyler.edu/articles/ethical-issues-in-healthcare.aspx
Wells, J. K. (2007). Ethical dilemma and resolution: a case scenario. Indian journal of medical ethics , 4 (1), 31-3.
