Firstly, WOW! What an incredible poster. You have all clearly put in so much time researching and appraising your sources, and this comes through in the clarity with which you have condensed very complex sources of information. I love the colour scheme too.
I was wondering which of the four ethical pillars your group feels is the most important to consider when prioritising who gets PPE?
Koby, Maria, Callista, Beth and Zahra
on May 30, 2020 at 7:12 pm
Thank you very much for the kind words Ciara and thank you for helping organise this programme for us alongside the other mentors – we all really enjoyed it and learnt so much from it!
Unfortunately we didn’t really get a chance to do Part C which was the ethical debate as we focused on getting the poster and referencing done and hence didn’t include an ethical part to our poster. That being said, we’ve had a discussion with regards to your question and feel that although all four of the ethical pillars are relevant and are important in their own ways, we feel justice in order to ensure the fair allocation of PPE such that the greatest number of people are protected is the most important and is something that can sometimes be neglected due to there being an unintentional postcode lottery system. This leads to some trusts being able to afford more PPE whereas others who may need it just as much may not be able to. The system’s we’ve discussed in our poster outlines how the government has tried to make this as fair as possible for different regions, especially those that are worst affected to be protected as best as possible.
Beneficence and non-maleficence also tie into this as by ensuring that PPE is distributed as fairly as possibly without any discrimination, this will hopefully mean that the greatest amount of people are kept safe and hence reduce the harm caused by the virus if PPE is used effectively alongside other measures such as hand hygiene etc.
We feel that although it is important to consider the autonomy of people in all circumstances, most people want PPE to stay safe and there is a scarcity of resource so we feel that it is more important to consider a fairer distribution reflecting justice as that is more realistic. With regards to autonomy, it’s also important to consider the impacts of what will happen if someone chooses not to wear PPE and how although this may be abiding by their autonomy, this may cause greater harm to other people so this should also be considered when deciding where PPE should be allocated.
Overall, we feel that the fair distribution of PPE will ensure the safety of the most people and hence believe justice is the most important pillar. It is difficult to decide what is a “fair” distribution though and there will always be “winners” and “losers” so it’s not so easy.
We’re aware that the answer was a bit all over the place but we hope we’ve shown how we’ve considered each ethical pillar in our decision.
Firstly, WOW! What an incredible poster. You have all clearly put in so much time researching and appraising your sources, and this comes through in the clarity with which you have condensed very complex sources of information. I love the colour scheme too.
I was wondering which of the four ethical pillars your group feels is the most important to consider when prioritising who gets PPE?
Thank you very much for the kind words Ciara and thank you for helping organise this programme for us alongside the other mentors – we all really enjoyed it and learnt so much from it!
Unfortunately we didn’t really get a chance to do Part C which was the ethical debate as we focused on getting the poster and referencing done and hence didn’t include an ethical part to our poster. That being said, we’ve had a discussion with regards to your question and feel that although all four of the ethical pillars are relevant and are important in their own ways, we feel justice in order to ensure the fair allocation of PPE such that the greatest number of people are protected is the most important and is something that can sometimes be neglected due to there being an unintentional postcode lottery system. This leads to some trusts being able to afford more PPE whereas others who may need it just as much may not be able to. The system’s we’ve discussed in our poster outlines how the government has tried to make this as fair as possible for different regions, especially those that are worst affected to be protected as best as possible.
Beneficence and non-maleficence also tie into this as by ensuring that PPE is distributed as fairly as possibly without any discrimination, this will hopefully mean that the greatest amount of people are kept safe and hence reduce the harm caused by the virus if PPE is used effectively alongside other measures such as hand hygiene etc.
We feel that although it is important to consider the autonomy of people in all circumstances, most people want PPE to stay safe and there is a scarcity of resource so we feel that it is more important to consider a fairer distribution reflecting justice as that is more realistic. With regards to autonomy, it’s also important to consider the impacts of what will happen if someone chooses not to wear PPE and how although this may be abiding by their autonomy, this may cause greater harm to other people so this should also be considered when deciding where PPE should be allocated.
Overall, we feel that the fair distribution of PPE will ensure the safety of the most people and hence believe justice is the most important pillar. It is difficult to decide what is a “fair” distribution though and there will always be “winners” and “losers” so it’s not so easy.
We’re aware that the answer was a bit all over the place but we hope we’ve shown how we’ve considered each ethical pillar in our decision.
Thank you! 🙂