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Despite their differences, they face many similar challenges.
Must a health care worker who is not trained to treat respiratory infec-
tions provide care to patients suffering from COVID-19? May health
care providers be redeployed elsewhere when there is a shortage of
staff? Are health care providers obliged to work in environments
they perceive as threatening to their own health? It is important to
acknowledge that health care providers often have competing inter-
ests and obligations to family members and others that could influ-
ence their decision-making at work.4
In this chapter, we compare the rights and responsibilities of
health care workers who are members of a regulated health profes-
sion and those who do not enjoy this same status.
Regulated Health Care Providers5
In Canada, regulated health care providers are subject to specific edu-
cation and registration requirements, as well as disciplinary and over-
sight processes, by their regulatory colleges. It is well established that
they have a duty to care for patients during a pandemic. This duty
is rooted in their professional and moral obligation to act in the best
interests of their patients. Many professional policies6 and codes of
ethics7 recognize a duty to care for patients during a pandemic, but
they acknowledge there are limits on this duty, including an entitle-
ment to safe working conditions.
The scope of a regulated health care provider’s duty of care
depends on several factors.8 For example, regulated health care pro-
viders who have chosen to work in high-risk settings, such as an
4. Yu-Tao Xiang et al, “Timely Mental Health Care for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus
Outbreak is Urgently Needed” (2020) 7:3 The Lancet 228.
5. Part of this section is taken from: Vanessa Gruben & Alicia Czarnowski, “What
Can We Expect From Healthcare Workers Facing the Deadly Demands of
COVID-19? What Can They Expect from Their Employers, Governments and
Us?” Policy Options (1 April 2020), online: <https://policyoptions.irpp.org/maga-
zines/april-2020/what-are-the-rights-and-responsibilities-of-healthcare-provid-
ers-in-a-pandemic/>.
6. CMA, “CMA Policy: Caring in a Crisis: The Ethical Obligations of Physicians
and Society During a Pandemic” (2008), online: CMA <https://policybase.cma.ca/
documents/policypdf/PD08-04.pdf>.
7. CNA, Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses (2017), online: CNA <https://www.cna-
aiic.ca/~/media/cna/page-content/pdf-en/code-of-ethics-2017-edition-secure-
interactive> [CNA, Code of Ethics].
8. Cara E Davies & Randi Zlotnik Shaul, “Physicians’ Legal Duty of Care and Legal
Right to Refuse to Work During a Pandemic” 182:2 CMAJ 167.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International