Home Care Ethical Dilemmas

Working in the Home Healthcare Industry for over 20 years I have seen many home health care employees faced with many ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas such as physical abuse in the home environment. As the Ethical Issues in Home Care points out, abuse in the home can cause the home health aide to have their moral values question. I have also heard of home health aide witness signs of abuse such as family members stealing patient’s medications and funds. At times many healthcare workers are afraid to report abuse because of the risk of losing their employment as the Ethical Issues in
Home care points out. Therefore, training is essential to educate home healthcare employees to deal with the moral dilemmas of providing care in the homecare environment.

As the …show more content…
But at times many patients are not willing to give honest surveys especially on paid family caregivers because of the fear of abuse and fear of losing the household income. Although training is given to home health aides to assist with providing safe healthcare, I have found that there is limited training on how to protect the home healthcare worker in the home environment.

At time the home healthcare worker must work in unsafe environment such as homes with excessive clutter which can increase the risk of falls. It probably makes sense that a cluttered home increases the risk of injury due to falls. However, you may not realize that falls are the leading cause of home injury death in the United States. According to the National Healthy Homes Training Center and Network
(NCHH.org), accidental falls account for 33 percent of all home injury deaths. This includes tripping over clutter and other types of preventable accidents. Extreme cases of house clutter – referred to as "hoarding" – is often an issue that the healthcare worker as to face.

As the Ethical home care article suggests the patient is considered the employer and the home