Ethical Dilemma: Telemedicine
Introduction
In the present time, the utilization of telemedicine has increased significantly, especially since the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. According to McGonigle & Mastrian (2021), telemedicine is the practice of medicine that relies on technology to deliver care to patients at a distance. A healthcare practitioner in one location relies on telecommunication devices and infrastructure to deliver care to a patient at a distant location. The practice of telemedicine leads to the emergence of numerous ethical dilemmas in the delivery of health care services, such as the influence on the patient-provider relationships and the confidentiality and privacy of patients. This paper will examine the ethical dilemmas associated with the practice of telemedicine, explore the literature related to such ethical dilemmas and finally highlight the implications of the ethical dilemmas related to the use of telemedicine to nursing practice and informatics.
Examine the Ethical Dilemma
With the increased use of telemedicine in the current times, it is important for healthcare practitioners to understand the ethical dilemmas that might arise with the use of such technology. Understanding medical dilemmas related to telemedicine can help healthcare practitioners to adopt the right strategies to mitigate ethical issues related to the use of telemedicine technology in reaching patients (Kichloo et al., 2020).
Relating to the use of telemedicine technology to attend to patients, the ethical dilemma that emerges relates to the interference of the patient-provider relationship and the privacy and confidentiality of patients. The use of telemedicine has a significant impact on the patient-provider relationship, which is the foundation of all treatment therapies. By relying on telecommunication devices and not being in physical contact with patients, health care practitioners might fail to establish an effective patient-provider relationship which can have a significant negative impact on patient outcomes (Moghbeli et al., 2017). The use of telemedicine technology can therefore interfere with the physical evaluation of a patient and make healthcare practitioners miss out on important details, which can subsequently contribute to poor outcomes among patients. The use of telemedicine technology to reach patients can result in health care practitioners not following the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, which are central to the therapeutic relationship between a healthcare practitioner and a patient (Moghbeli et al., 2017).
The use of telemedicine to reach distant patients also raises an ethical dilemma related to the privacy and confidentiality of patients. The telecommunication infrastructure used in telemedicine has numerous security issues that can contribute to access of private patient information to third parties either on the physician side or on the patient side (Nittari et al., 2020).
Literature Review
According to Keenan et al. (2021), considering the main ethical issues related to the use of telemedicine which includes the privacy and confidentiality of patients and the weakening of the patient-provider relationship, different alternatives can be adopted to try and address these ethical issues. One of the strategies that can help to address the ethical issues related to poor patient-provider relationships in the use of telemedicine is enhancing the communication between a patient and a healthcare practitioner. Healthcare practitioners should utilize multimedia formats of communication such as messages, calls, videos, and images to try to enhance communication in telemedicine interactions which can significantly boost patient-provider relationships. Relying on multimedia forms of communication, including written, spoken, and other media forms such as images and video, can help significantly to improve the communication between healthcare providers and patients. This can resolve the ethical issue related to are patient-provider relationship which eventually contributes to the breaking of the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence (Keenan et al., 2021).
According to Nittari et al. (2020), the adoption of security procedures such as two-factor authentication and strong passwords can also go a long way in solving ethical issues related to patient privacy and confidentiality in the use of telemedicine. By providing guidelines such as relying on two-factor authentication and strong password to secure the different devices used in telemedicine, both physicians and patients can be able to avoid any security breaches that can interfere with the privacy and confidentiality of patients (Nittari et al., 2020).
Relying on multimedia formats to enhance the com
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