The Application of Different Ethical Codes of Conduct by the Healthcare Professionals in Nakuru District Government Hospitals

Abstract

This paper discusses the application of different ethical codes of conduct by the healthcare professionals concerning HIV/AIDS patients in Nakuru district government hospitals. The main objective was to assess the understanding of ethical codes of conduct by these practitioners to HIV/AIDS patients. Utilitarian theory by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill was used as principled criteria. The actions of any person are judged by their consequences. The informed actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and wrong as they tend to produce the opposite of happiness. The study employed descriptive research design. The target group for the study was HIV/AIDS patients in Nakuru government district hospitals. The sampling was purposive which involved 120 HIV/AIDS patients. The data was collected using a specific questionnaire for the patients who assessed the healthcare workers. The findings revealed that most of healthcare professionals (97%) understood their different ethical codes of conduct as expressed through management of HIV/AIDS patients while (3%) did not seem to understand any code of professionalism. It is hoped that this study will enlighten those dealing with patients, policy makers in healthcare institutions, ethicists, philosophers and other scholars whose main aim is to maintain professionalism in their different professions.