The Ethical Principle of Providing Healthcare for Deaf Patients
The Ethical Principle of Providing Healthcare for Deaf Patients
College of Nursing, Resurrection University
NUR 4242: Ethics in Nursing
The Ethical Principle of Providing Healthcare for Deaf Patients
The deaf community is a vulnerable population with a language barrier when accessing healthcare (Laur, 2017). Due to their condition, deaf patients cannot hear, preventing them from effectively communicating with providers and nurses about their health. According to the American with Disabilities Act, hospitals and clinics must have communication methods for patients and family members who are deaf or hard of hearing (United States Department of Justice, 2005). A sign-language interpreter is trained to effectively communicate with the patient using American Sign Language (ASL). The interpreter is an advocate for the patient and helps communicate with healthcare professionals throughout their hospital stay.
The Ethical Principle of Providing Healthcare for Deaf Patients
This communication includes the patient’s chief complaints, signs/symptoms, tests, medications, procedures, and treatment. When a health care professional overlooks the patient’s condition and does not address the patient’s communication needs, miscommunication occurs, leading to misdiagnosis from the physician or delayed medical treatment. This is a significant issue to investigate because they do not provide a level of standard of care for the patient. There is a breach of ethical and professional duty leading to negligence and lawsuit against the hospital. This paper investigates the principle of treating deaf patients, the impact of a language barrier when accessing healthcare and the moral responsibility in providing care to the deaf community.
Ethical Dimensions of Limited Access to Healthcare
Limited access to health care for the deaf community is an ethical problem. There are 6 million deaf patients in the United States of America and 38 million people with hearing problems (Laur, 2017). They are not receiving equal access to health care and services as abled individuals. According to the ADA, all locations must have accessibility and proper communication for an individual with a disability (U.S. Department of Justice, 2005).
This lack of accessibility leads to health disparities for individuals in the vulnerable population, such as the deaf community for resources, transportation, nutrition, education, advocacy, and health promotion. Furthermore, deaf patients are at a disadvantage because they need additional help and undergo ethnocentrism due their disability. Deaf community has negative connotations and has experienced victimization and discrimination with terms such as, “deaf-dumb”, “deaf-mute” or hearing impaired meaning they do not have a voice and nor have to ability to learn or have reasonable thinking (National Association of Deaf, 2020).
