Dr. Robinson Vs. Teacher

Dr.Robinson Vs. Teacher

Background:

The ethical dilemma is about a doctor named Dr. Robinson who owns his own practice. He has a patient who comes often and has problems with anxiety and depression. The patient has had a history with few attempts at suicide and psychotic breakdowns. The patient came in earlier in the day and requested a higher dosage amount for her prescribed medication, which was Xanax. Dr. Robinson didn't see a problem with prescribing her with a higher dosage so he did. Looking at her file, he felt as though he recognized the patient’s name, but couldn't figure out from where. Later that evening, while at home with his family, he reads over some paperwork his 9-year-old daughter brought home from school. He notices that the name of the teacher on his daughter’s papers are the same as the patient whom he prescribed the higher dosage of Xanax earlier. As a concerned parent, he wanted to take his daughter out of the class and wanted to report the teacher to the board of education. Even though his daughter seems to be happy with her teacher, he still feels concern as to whether her teacher is mentally stable to teach a classroom of third graders. However, because his daughter’s teacher is also his patient, he is unable to release this kind of information to anyone because of doctor patient confidentiality.

Ethical Analysis:

The ethical dilemma that Dr. Robinson is currently facing is whether or not to report his patient to the board of education. By choosing to report his patient he will be facing many consequences. These consequences include losing his job for releasing his patient’s confidential information as well as possibly shutting down his practice which means that his employees will also be losing their job. He could also be facing disciplinary with the General Medical Council which is also known as the GMC, criminal proceedings, and paying the patient compensation (Main Principles of Consent).

Not only will Dr. Robinson be affected by this decision, but his daughter’s teacher will also be affected. She would have to explain her condition to the board of education. Parents would most likely be informed of the teacher’s condition and would have to deal with constantly defending herself. She might also go through another psychotic breakdown due to the amount of stress, she will be dealing with from Dr.Robinson’s statement. She will continue to keep her job and go through an unnecessary excess amount of stress.

Parents will also be affected by the situation because they will most likely share the same concern Dr. Robinson has. The teacher’s students will be affected from the situation because they will also most likely be informed in a lighter way about the conditions of their teacher which can negatively affect their perception of their teacher.