Some may be recovered in an hour or more but others may hibernate forever. It’s the health care professionals’ responsibility to help the comatose patient until the last minute of his/her life. It’s also ethical requirement for health care professions to approach patient in a coma as per the health care policy, guidance, rules and regulations. In the scenario, both “ethical- respecting standard of conduct and moral judgement and unethical- violation of standard of conduct and moral judgement” (Makely, Austin, & Kester, 2013, pp. 39, 64) health care approach were seen. Whether the patient is in coma or not, ethical practice is mandatory among the health care professionals. According to the case, the comatose patient not only lost consciousness, but also lost civility by health care professional, specifically, by the chief resident and other junior residents and students.
Makely, Austin, & Kester (2013) states civility- “the provision of courteous, and incivility- the decline of courteous”. In other way Ski (2012) defined civility-“a behavior that shows respect toward another person, makes that person feel valued, and contributes to mutual respect, effective communication, and team …show more content…
The two incivility showed are aggressive speech (what he shouted to the IV therapist) and Discrimination (in the case of patient’s ethnicity) and the crowd laughing while the chief spoke unethical talk. Incivility is the failure to deal with courteous (Makely, Austin, & Kester, 2013, p. 78). Either the chief resident or the junior residents along other students went through incivility way. At least they had to think about who they deal with. Even if the IV therapist had mistakenly talked (as the chief along his crowd assumed) to the comatose patient, it is unethical to yell to another health professional. This behavior not only damages the moral of others, but also classifies under the malpractice (the failure to meet the standard of care or the failure to conduct prescribed ethics by a profession) in health care sector. Discrimination is also another incivility showed by the chief resident while the IV therapist spoke to the comatose patient. Yelling at one’s own race or ethnicity is a civil right violation. The chief yelled the IV therapist to speak to the comatose patient in Russian language while he was taking about the uselessness to speak to the comatose patient. Regardless of medical condition, race socioeconomic status or other factors, it is civil right violation to unfairly treat a person or a group on the basis of preconception (Makely, Austin, & Kester, 2013,