Browse Medical Ethics Advisor Articles by Topic

Ethics Training Is More Effective In-Person than Online

Graduate students at Angelo State University in San Angelo, TX, have received Responsible Conduct of Research/Professional Ethics Training since 2008 with very good results. Cheryl Stenmark, PhD, and colleagues wanted to know if the program would be equally successful if presented as a real-time, video-streamed, remote training.

Surrogate Decision-Makers Are Most Common Issue in Ethics Consults for Patients with Liver Disease

Surrogate decision-making was the primary ethical issue for clinical ethics consults involving patients with liver disease, according to a recent study.

Incarcerated Patients Pose Unique Ethical Concerns

Clinicians encounter incarcerated patients in both inpatient and ambulatory settings. Multiple ethical complexities come up with patient care in this population.

Privacy Is Ethical Concern with Suicide Research Recruitment in ED Setting

Clinical research is necessary to improve the management of potentially suicidal individuals. However, there are multiple ethical concerns about how to protect the rights and well-being of study participants.

Ethical Approaches for End-of-Life Communication with Non-English-Speaking ICU Patients

When caring for non-English-language-speaking intensive care unit patients, clinicians face all the same ethical issues as they do with any other patient, and some additional ones when cases involve patients who speak rarer languages.

Emotional Effect of Clinical Ethics Work Often Goes Unrecognized

There is a great deal of focus on the emotional well-being of nurses and physicians, but the effects of clinical ethics work on ethicists are largely undiscussed. Anna Goff, PhD, HEC-C, colleagues interviewed 34 clinical ethicists in 2023 to learn the effect of their professional responsibilities and how coping mechanisms and organizational structures can help.

Precision Medicine Raises Unique Ethics Concerns in Emergency Department

Precision medicine technologies are rapidly advancing in healthcare, but this approach also presents some ethical challenges.

Surrogates’ Long-Term Distress Is Ethical Concern

Communication breakdowns between clinicians and surrogates in intensive care units may contribute to surrogates’ long-term psychological distress. However, there is no consensus on how to address this concern.

Medical Mistrust Can Hinder End-of-Life Decision-Making

During medical training and early clinical practice, Scott Vasher, MD, observed that some patients, or their surrogate decision-makers, had an intrinsic trust in the healthcare team. Others seemed mistrustful. Vasher and colleagues conducted a study to measure surrogate decision-maker medical mistrust and identify risk factors for higher medical mistrust.

Ethics Consult Requestors Will Expect Quick Response

When someone reaches the point where they are contacting an ethicist, it is safe to assume that person has, at least in their minds, a very pressing concern. But what response time is quick enough for ethics consult requests? There is no clear consensus.