Ethics and responsibility in Laboratory Essay

It has been noted that high career advancement is there in this field, in hospitals as well as with physicians and in individual diagnostic centres. With the advance in technology there will be high job opportunities, with low number of Technicians which can use fully laboratory with an experience hand.
Ethics and Responsibility
The ethics of medical laboratory technology professional must have a balance between professional responsibility and the patient. It essentially includes good professional competence, good professional relationship with patients and colleagues. It should have observation of professional ethical obligations.
1.4.1. Ethics in Laboratory
Since thirteenth century, history of medical ethics has given an antique value. In 1975 the American Association of Clinical Chemistry issued guidelines. Ethics are moral values and principles of right conduct. Professionals need ethics for the following reasons
(i) To understand and develop the image of professional in themselves.
(ii) To understand the moral bond between the professional and individuals it serves.
(iii) To gain Public trust, as ethics is the key element in gaining public trust.
Clinical laboratory professionals are health care professionals. These must posses following professional qualities
Respectful
Trustworthy
Dependable
Courteous
Considerate
Problem solving skills
Lab professionals should have respect for others and problem solving skills. They should have ability to handle their personal responsibility also, so that no professional distraction can be caused by this.
1.4.2. Medical Legal Concerns
Consent Consent refers to patient agreeing and understanding the nature of test to be performed. It also includes that it is in knowledge of patients that what will be done with specimen and the result. This consent is known as informed consent. Generally the consent for simples test are implied when patient enters hospital or go to health care provider. These include routine tests. For complex procedures such as bone marrow aspiration, fine needle aspiration, a signed informed consent by the patient or guardian should be obtained.
Confidentiality Now a day the issue of confidentiality in case of patients with AIDS or HIV positive blood examinations have caused legislation to be passed in many states to ensure the protection to patients and their families. Release of patient health information by patient is authorized as in most cases these are to non health care entities like insurance companies, lawyers and friends. But Hospital professionals are supposed to make strict confidentiality concerning their health, detection and results.
Chain of Custody It involves any procedure that requires detail tracking and integrity and handling from the time of specimen collection to the time of its analyses and report. Laboratory evaluations including alcohol level, drug levels, specimens from rape victims, or paternity evaluations etc, are submitted from medical examiner cases are examples that most often require documentation. So many institutes like National Institute on Drug Abuse has issued mandatory guidelines for workplace testing programmes.
1.4.3. Principles of Ethics
There are three main levels. These include
Micro level Individual Professional and Patient Relationship.
Meso Level Civic and Public Health Ethics
Macro Level Ethics of interdependences and external relationship.