Section outline

    • Ethics is about understanding right and wrong in human behaviour. It involves organising, defending, and recommending moral concepts. Applied ethics deals with ethical questions specific to professional, societal, or practical contexts.

      Ethics in the medical laboratory and healthcare context focuses on addressing specific ethical issues, including ensuring patient confidentiality, obtaining informed consent, and maintaining integrity in testing and research. Medical laboratory professionals must navigate complex situations where ethical guidelines help them make decisions that prioritizs patient care welfare and uphold professional standards. Medical laboratory scientists also engage in frontline research, which can present unique ethical challenges that extend beyond their individual workplaces

      In healthcare, applied ethics also involves balancing the needs of patients with available resources, ensuring fair access to care, and addressing ethical dilemmas that may arise from new technologies and treatments. By adhering to ethical principles, healthcare professionals can provide high-quality care while respecting patients’ rights and dignity.

      Being vigilant about professional ethics helps us recognizs the ethical pitfalls that can arise during a busy workday. Our awareness of these ethical aspects grows through experience, discussions, and reflections on everyday situations. Therefore, it’s crucial to think about how to apply general ethical guidelines in our daily work.

       Equality Rights Balance Fair Justice Ethics Concept
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    • Terminology

      Ethics:

      A standard of right and wrong that members of a group, organisation, profession, or society freely accept. (source: link.springer.com)

      Equity:

      The action that recognises that different individuals have different needs. It’s about providing resources and opportunities based on those needs. Equity acknowledges that treating everyone the same may not lead to fair outcomes because some people require more support than others. (source: link.springer.com).

      Ethics and laboratory medicine:

      Professional ethics is the moral bond that links a profession, the people it serves and society. Understanding the complexities of individual and common good is essential for full professional participation in major issues in health care.

      Ethical behaviour is characterised by honesty, fairness and equity in interpersonal, professional and academic relationships as well as in research and scholarly activities.  Ethical behaviour respects the dignity, diversity and rights of individuals and groups of people.  This definition is not a denial of the existence of other ethical duties concerning practice, professional service delivery and research.

      Ethical behaviour means the selection of the best action for each situation. It is dependent on the individual's values, the values of the profession and the fundamental values of health services, including those determined by law.  These values determine what is right or what is wrong.  Health care legislation represents those fundamental values which have been deemed necessary to specify in acts of law.  Professionals in the sector are obliged to know and follow existing rules and regulations.
      (source: various medical ethics literature)


      Good Laboratory ethics principle:

      A laboratory reports only sample results which meet all compliance criteria or properly qualifies all those results that do not meet all compliance criteria.

      Breach in ethics:

      Any deliberate action or inaction allowing sample results to appear as meeting all applicable compliance criteria when they do not.

      A Certified laboratory must qualify all sample results that do not meet all compliance criteria.

      Source: utuber35 YouTube Channel, Video Title: Lab ethics

    • Quiz 1
      Students must
      Receive a grade
      Receive a passing grade

      Please complete the Quiz. You will have three attempts to pass and achieve 80% (4 points out of 5), the pass mark required for this section.

      For each question, after answering, click "Check" to verify if your answer is correct. If it is incorrect or partially correct, take note.
      Once you submit the entire quiz, you can view your mark and review all your answers. If you do not pass, you can reattempt the entire quiz. 

      Note that only once you have made three attempts, or the quiz is closed, will you be given the right answer for your incomplete or incorrect answers.