What are the Rights of Healthcare Workers? | Health Lawyer in Izmir | Attorney Dilek Yavuz Uysal
What are the rights of healthcare workers?
As with all fields of work and professions, healthcare workers have legal rights that protect them in both private and public institutions. These rights are regulated for all those working in the healthcare field.
Healthcare professionals' rights are regulated in many areas, starting from their education and continuing through the practice of their profession and their relationship with patients. For example, their legal rights include the right to receive quality education and to update their skills, the right to apply contemporary scientific medical practices, the right to adhere to ethical principles, the right to practice their profession without pressure, and the right to avoid situations that contradict their values. Furthermore, the right to protect their own and their families' health, the right to demand an adequate income level, the right to participate in administrative processes, the right to refuse to testify, the right to refuse a patient, and the right not to guarantee a cure are other legal rights of healthcare personnel and doctors.
Therefore, a healthcare professional or physician has these rights and can demand their implementation at every stage of their profession, starting from their education. For example, a nurse, as a healthcare professional, has the right to refuse a patient. Just as individuals have the right to choose their doctor for treatment, healthcare professionals also have the right to refuse a patient.
The universal basic ethical principles adopted in the field of medicine are as follows:
- Utility principle
- The principle of not causing harm
- Principle of Justice
- Principle of autonomy
If we were to list the rights of healthcare workers point by point and explain some of them:
- The Right to Adequate Education and Continuous Professional Development
Physicians have the right to receive adequate and high-quality training to enable them to assume significant professional, ethical, and legal responsibilities. Standardization of general practitioner and specialist training should be ensured across different medical schools and educational institutions, and equal opportunities in education should be provided to all physicians and specialists. - The Right to Adequate Wages
Physicians have the right to receive adequate compensation commensurate with their education, dedication, and the professional risks they undertake. - The Right to Practice One's Profession Freely
As a rule, it is legal for a physician to physically touch a patient during a medical intervention. The primary aim of such an action is to save the patient's life and ensure their health. Even if the intervention does not result in a full recovery, there is generally no legal violation.
However, if a patient dies or suffers harm as a result of delayed treatment, or if the patient suffers harm because the physician deviated from the commonly used medical treatment methods and applied an alternative, unsuitable treatment approach, the physician shall be held liable. - The Right to Use Modern Technology and Science
- The Right to Participate in Administrative Decisions
Physicians have the right to express their opinions, offer criticisms and suggestions, and participate in administrative decisions within the healthcare institution where they work. - Right to Refuse a Patient
- Right to Request a Consultation
Physicians have the right to request consultation from another physician(s) for their patient on medical, ethical, and legal grounds. - The Right to Dedicate Sufficient Time to One's Patient
- The Right to Protect Health and be Protected from Occupational Risks
A physician cannot be asked to perform procedures that contradict their own values (professional knowledge, medical ethics, law, conscience). - The Right to Refuse to Testify
- The Right to Choose Treatment
A physician is free to choose any of the standard methods that can be used in the treatment of a disease.Medical Deontology Regulations Article 6). A physician cannot be compelled to administer a treatment that he/she deems inappropriate for a patient. - The Right to Obtain Information and Advice and to Request Compliance with Treatment.
Physicians have the right to receive accurate information from their patients, to ensure that the medications they prescribe are used properly, and to comply with other advice they provide. - The Right Not to Engage in Punitive Actions
A physician cannot be compelled to actively participate in any act of punishment (death penalty, torture).
We can list them as follows.
To protect the rights of healthcare workers, employers and managers in healthcare institutions must assume full responsibility for ensuring that all necessary preventive and protective measures are taken to minimize occupational health and safety risks. For example, the hospital's chief physician should take protective and preventive measures to safeguard the rights of the doctors working at the hospital. If there is an aggressive patient relative and this relative is having problems with a doctor working at the hospital, the chief physician should take protective measures for the doctor. The hospital security should be mobilized to respect the doctor's right to refuse a patient and to freely practice their profession.
The Turkish Medical Association emphasizes the responsibility of the institutions where physicians work for the exercise of the above-mentioned rights. It calls on healthcare providers and funders to protect the rights of physicians and respect their professional independence in clinical decision-making processes.
For legal advice on this matter, please contact our expert team. Contact page.
Other works that may be of interest to you;
- Patient Rights & What Are My Rights as a Patient?
- Malpractice within the Scope of Supreme Court Decisions
- What are the Patients Rights in an Aesthetic Surgery?
- Tissue and Organ Transplantation in Health Law
- Malpractice Compensation Lawsuits: Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the rights of healthcare workers?
- What is malpractice?
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