All
RSSArticles
-
End-of-Life Care Should Not Vary Depending on Provider
Clinicians must be careful about imposing medical staff priorities over patients’ priorities. Making presumptions is dangerous. Ethicists can help by explaining the provider’s responsibility to offer accurate information.
-
Genomic Results by Mail Might Leave People with More Questions Than Answers
Genomic results may oversimplify complex concepts, and patients may be without clinical experts who can properly fill in the gaps.
-
Physicians Reported Moral Distress About Surrogate Decision-Makers
Parties clash regarding comfort levels and how aggressive treatment should be. The lack of advance directives for so many patients exacerbates the problem. Nurses and other colleagues can join the conversations to assist or outright substitute for physicians who are unwilling or unable to engage deeply.
-
Communicate Collaboratively Before End-of-Life Care Conversations Disintegrate
Once communication breaks down, it is difficult to rebuild. Clinicians, ethicists, and palliative care all should be talking to each other to be sure the family hears a common message.
-
Families Are Confused, Skeptical About ‘Inappropriate’ Treatment
Many, if not most, ethics consults involve conflicts over withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment at the end of a patient’s life. Yet families are likely to be quite confused by commonly used terms such as “futile” and “potentially inappropriate.”
-
Beyond Healthcare Workers, COVID-19 Immunization is Ethically Complex
There is optimism about the coming availability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. However, supplies are likely to be limited, at least initially. Thus, various groups have suggested prioritization schemes to allocate limited vaccine supplies.
-
COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Deaths in Healthcare Workers
Analysis of COVID-19 hospitalization data from 13 sites indicated that 6% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 were healthcare personnel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Moreover, 4% of healthcare workers died with COVID-19 during hospitalization.
-
SARS-CoV-2 Mutates in Minks
Minks farmed for their fur are acquiring SARS-CoV-2 from humans and transmitting it back, a classic scenario for possible genetic mutation that could create a mismatch with vaccines under development, the World Health Organization reports.
-
Healthcare Workers Await the First SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
With the first vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 on the horizon and targeted for healthcare workers, there are safety concerns and trust issues that threaten to undermine immunization. However, all new vaccines are followed closely for adverse effects, and the oversight of COVID-19 immunization will include multiple systems of passive and active surveillance.
-
CDC Offers Healthcare Workers Online Infection Control Training
In an initiative that should complement the efforts of infection preventionists, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched on online interactive training network on infection control aimed at both frontline healthcare workers and other personnel.