Medical Ethics Advisor – August 1, 2020

August 1, 2020

• Ethics Can Help Drive Efforts to Address Racial Disparities in Healthcare

  The healthcare industry must recognize that it is not enough to avoid actions that are affirmatively biased against minority groups. It takes affirmative efforts to overcome a deeply ingrained history of exclusion.

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• Ethical Responses If Patients Ask for Provider of Different Race

  If mishandled, the situation can result in problems ranging from bad clinical outcomes to Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act violations — even litigation.

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• Black Researchers at Disadvantage for NIH Funding

  Three separate analyses reveal gaps in funding, peer review scores, and publication rates.

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• Establishing the Right Policies on Decision-Making for Unrepresented ICU Patients

  A new policy statement recommends institutions prevent patients from becoming unrepresented in the first place by offering advance care planning. Conduct thorough capacity assessments and search for potential surrogates before assuming patients are unrepresented.

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• Nurses Create Approach to Ethical Decision-Making

  Follow the four “Rs”: Recognize what is behind problematic decision-making, Release preconceived attitudes, Reconsider new approaches, and Restart with a fresh focus.

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• More Than 300 Clinical Ethicists Have Earned HEC-C Credential

  One year in, the program is popular, but questions remain regarding the certification's importance to administrators when they are evaluating skills and making hiring decisions.

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• Data Reveal More About Patients Who Request Medical Assistance in Dying

  More people are asking for medical assistance in dying, but surprisingly little is known about this population.

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• Ethics of Default Options for Advance Directives

  Default options in advance directives strongly influenced patients’ end-of-life care choices, according to the authors of a recent study.

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• Advance Care Planning Does Not Decrease Hope, Contrary to Common Belief

  Many oncologists may cite fear of giving up hope as a primary reason they defer conversations about end-of-life or advance care planning until late in the course of a patient’s disease.

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