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An implanted heart rhythm device may generate repeated painful shocks during a patient's final hours, at a time when the natural process of dying often affects the heart's rhythm. Yet, clinicians rarely discuss options for limiting these distressing events at the end of life (EOL), according to a new review of literature1, appearing in American Journal of Nursing.
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Palliative care was only recognized as a specialty five years ago by the American College of Graduate Medical Education. Because of its newness, those working in the specialty are still learning how to effectively collect data and make use of the information once they have collected it.
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Palliative care isn't just for hospice patients; it also is used to manage the symptoms of those with chronic or advanced illnesses. One hospital system in Michigan has brought palliative care into all aspects of hospital care for all patients.
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For years, federal regulations have deemed the research use of deidentified blood and tissue samples collected in clinical procedures to be non-human subjects research, and therefore, they have not required informed consent from the patients from whom they were taken.
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According to a study that appears in Archives of Surgery, between 85% and 94% of patients were willing to sign forms permitting medical residents to assist surgeons, but many will not consent to giving residents a major role during surgery.1 Fewer patients consented when the form offered more detailed information about the education level or role of the student.
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The manner in which investigators, research institutions, and review boards handle incidental findings has evolved in recent years, with a consensus now forming around the belief that research sites have an ethical responsibility when it comes to reporting certain incidental findings to research subjects.
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According to a follow-up study in the American Journal of Public Health, few states in the United States have properly addressed ethical issues surrounding pandemic flu preparedness in recent years.
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Doctors and other medical professionals occasionally joke about their patients' problems. Some of these jokes are clearly wrong, but some joking between medical professionals is not only ethical, but it actually can be beneficial, concludes an article in the Hastings Center Report.
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The question of whether to inform patients of a previous provider's error was highlighted recently in a discussion posted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Planning for a disaster is always important and necessary, and probably even more so when the disaster affects the mentally impaired in a hospital setting.
