Medical Ethics Advisor
RSSArticles
-
Assumptions on Correct Surrogate Are Legally, Ethically Problematic
Generally speaking, ethicists consider three things: Who has had regular contact? Who has shown care and concern? And who knows the patient’s wishes best?
-
Social Media Research Presents Many Unresolved Ethical Issues
The authors of a recent paper propose steps the scientific community can take to ensure social media data are used ethically.
-
New Efforts Help Emergency Medicine Residents Gain Hospice, Palliative Medicine Skills
Emergency medicine residents have very little time to learn hospice and palliative medicine skills. This includes symptom management and effective communication. There currently is no nationally defined hospice and palliative medicine curriculum for resident training.
-
The Immediate and Downstream Benefits of Ethics Rounds
Regular rounding by ethicists builds trust with clinicians and gets issues resolved earlier with a preventive ethics approach.
-
All Financial Conflicts of Interest Influence Findings: ‘There’s Always a Tradeoff Involved’
Given the potential for bias, it is important that all conflicts be disclosed so they can be evaluated — but this does not neutralize the risk.
-
Mindfulness Intervention Well-Received by Palliative Care Providers
The intervention stemmed from strong interest in addressing providers’ well-being.
-
Spiritual Care in ICU: Persistent Unmet Needs
The authors of a recent literature review looked at the current state of spiritual care in the ICU setting. The findings reveal both the benefits of spiritual care services and the persistent unmet needs.
-
Study: Advance Care Plans Lacking When Serious Complications Occur
When patients with significant underlying comorbidities suffer life-threatening or serious complications at Indiana University Health, the palliative team is consulted. All too often, they find there is no advance directive in place.
-
Call for Uniform Brain Death Standard: Opponents ‘Increasingly Vocal and Influential’
There are growing calls for a uniform brain death standard, but court cases and in-hospital conflicts continue to increase.
-
Study Sheds Light on How Clinical Ethics Consults Are Categorized
Ethics consultations are categorized in a surprisingly heterogeneous way, found a recent analysis of 30 articles. The most common categories were do not resuscitate orders, capacity, withholding, withdrawing, and surrogate or proxy. Only 26% of the typologies (seven of 27 unique typologies) contained the five most common categories.