Medical Ethics Advisor – February 1, 2020
February 1, 2020
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Data: Opioids Rising Cause of Ethics Consults
An analysis conducted at a Massachusetts hospital regarding ethics consults related to opioid prescriptions could provide useful insight for other facilities seeing a rise in such requests.
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Ethics Education in High Demand for Palliative Care Clinicians
Ethics consultants and palliative care clinicians are obvious partners in the task of caring for patients in pain. The skills of each group, when combined, are of great potential benefit to patients and their families.
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Clinicians Struggle With Ethical Decision-Making if There Is No Surrogate
Federal law requires hospitals to inform patients of the need to choose a surrogate. However, many institutions perform this task poorly, due in part to a lack of clear policies, proper training, and other support. There are a few ways the ethics team can help.
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Fresh Approaches for Quality Assurance Hot Topic in Ethics Field
Quality assurance in clinical ethics work comes with some unique challenges, and many in the field desire to do it better.
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Ethical Concerns When Committing Psychiatric Patients Involuntarily
Hospitals continue to see a surge of psychiatric patients coming to their EDs. Some end up admitted involuntarily — and not always appropriately. Certain emerging patterns are ethically troubling.
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Research on Nurses’ Suicide Risk Reveals Ethical Concerns
Awareness about suicide risk among nurses growing, programs emerging to help before tragedy strikes.
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‘Formerly Burned Out’ Study Respondents Offer Valuable Insights
There is a great deal of research on burnout in the literature, but little of it is specific to advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants. Now, researchers have gathered such information, which revealed rays of light for those on the verge of leaving the profession.
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Ethical Obligations to Study Participants if Findings Are of Unknown Significance
The average person carries more than 500,000 rare or novel genetic variants, thousands of which might be identified during a genomics research study. The question is whether, and how, people should be told about any of these findings.