Medical Ethics Advisor
RSSArticles
-
Ethical Guidance Needed if Researchers Identify Diagnostic Errors
Clinicians know there is a clear ethical obligation to disclose errors to patients. However, the individual who finds a diagnostic error may not be a clinician in direct contact with the patient. Instead, it might be a researcher who is reviewing a chart long after a patient was discharged. What are researchers’ ethical obligations if they find an error no one else had discovered?
-
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.
-
Treatment Withdrawal Policies Could Harm Families
Chaplain: "Your patient is not just the person in the bed. It’s the whole family."
-
Where Should Clinicians Draw the Line on ‘Grateful Patient’ Donations?
Healthcare philanthropy is an essential activity, but approaches to encourage donations must be mindful of ethical considerations and public attitudes.
-
Conflicts Over Decision-Making Frequent in ICUs
Consider psychological, biological, spiritual, and social factors, and the role they play in understanding illness and healthcare delivery. Using this model, clinical ethicists can encourage dialogue between healthcare professionals caring for seriously ill patients.
-
Unexpected Issues Hinder Ethics Committees’ Effectiveness
Conflicts of interests and bloated, unfocused panels can torpedo good intentions.
-
Controversy Surrounds Exception from Informed Consent Enrollment
The term “exception from informed consent” for some clinical trials has been around for decades, but most patients know nothing about it. Researchers set out to explore attitudes about enrolling subjects in studies without consent.
-
Sepsis Outcomes Improve, But Not at Minority-Serving Hospitals
ICU deaths declined 2% steadily annually at non-minority hospitals, according to a recent report. This was not true of minority-serving hospitals. Those hospitals also reported longer lengths of stay and more critical illness than non-minority hospitals.
-
ICU Nurses Feel Marginalized During Ethical Conflicts
A pair of researchers analyzed open-ended responses from a survey with ICU nurses, and identified three themes.