Medical Ethics Advisor
RSSArticles
-
Ethical Principles Apply to Furloughs and Layoffs
Many hospitals are making tough financial decisions on staffing. Ethical considerations may be overlooked in the process.
-
Public Health Nurses Share Views on Vaccine Education
Debates on how to best respond to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infections continue. Opinions about mandating vaccines, including if, how, and when, vary widely.
-
Sharply Divided (and Evolving) Views on Vaccine Refusers
As the world anxiously awaits a vaccine for COVID-19, an ethical debate rages over whether people should be allowed to refuse it.
-
Massive Switch to Telehealth Is ‘Unparalleled Opportunity’ to Examine Ethics
The sudden and explosive growth of telehealth during COVID-19 demanded sorting out all kinds of logistics, reimbursement, and scheduling processes in short order. The frantic time frames to set it up did not exactly allow for careful ethical reflection.
-
Chaplains ‘Uniquely Positioned’ to Help During COVID-19
Learn how chaplains can put their specialized training to use to help not only patients and families but staff, too.
-
Is the Family Hoping for a Miracle? Ethical Responses Vary
Parents sometimes want life-sustaining technology continued because a miracle is possible, but the pediatrician believes it is harmful. The key to an ethical response in this kind of case is to gain insight into what the parent means by “miracle.” A recent paper offers a process-based approach to this.
-
POLST Forms Not Always Used as Intended, Rarely Accessed in EDs
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms have been implemented widely to reduce unwanted, aggressive treatment for patients with serious illness at the end of life. However, most studies on POLST have been limited to nursing home residents or among decedents. Researchers set out to better understand how POLST forms are used in the hospital, and whether treatment limitations on POLST influence the intensity of treatment hospital patients received.
-
Families’ Surprising Opinions on End-of-Life ICU Care
Intensive care units may be associated with poor-quality end-of-life care. A recent study’s findings call that assumption into question — at least from the family’s perspective.
-
Ethicists Offer Much-Needed Support to Clinicians with Moral Distress
The issue of moral distress is nothing new in healthcare, but the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the problem. Read on to learn how ethicists can help colleagues sort through unusual feelings.
-
Disciplinary Action, Terminations, Gag Orders: ‘Avalanche Effect’
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, hospitals suddenly had to determine how to ration scarce critical care resources. Hospitals could not change the fact they were caught without enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and could not immediately obtain more of it. However, they could control whether they responded ethically. Some hospitals imposed gag orders on staff, barring them from voicing concerns about PPE publicly. Nurses and physicians have been disciplined or threatened with termination for reporting inadequate PPE on social media.