Reflections on deconstructing Harry, or when is good art bad science?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P Rodney.
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Economic evaluation is a critical tool for nursing and health care. The authors claim that economic inquiry needs to be supported by expertise in ethical inquiry, that the nursing profession needs to examine values concurrently with economics. Drawing on 2 ethnographic studies of nursing practice, the authors illustrate nurses' invisible work, their invisible triaging of clients, and the invisible costs to nurses and clients. They argue that invisible work, triage, and costs are embedded in a number of values, and that if nursing is to respond to the consequences of health reform, it must examine the values inherent in economic measurement and subsequent health-policy decisions; what is invisible may go "uncounted" unless economic evaluation is informed by ethical inquiry. The authors conclude by suggesting that economic and ethical inquiry be integrated in order to foster a system that is more humane as well as more effective and efficient for all those involved in health-care delivery.
Advances in technology and the increased awareness and activism of health care consumers have brought a heightened focus to the ethical questions associated with end-of-life decision-making in health care. This attention is manifested in increased discussion, both in the literature and informally, of end-of-life issues; in increased numbers of advanced directives; and, recently in Canada, in the formation of the Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide whose charge was to develop policy on these issues. Nurses have valuable perspectives to add to this discourse.
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Awareness of nurses' ethical concerns has increased greatly over the last few years. In response to this awareness, the Canadian Nurses Association revised the Code of Ethics to provide direction for the implementation of ethical standards for nursing. Yet, a growing body of literature suggests that situational constraints make it difficult for nurses to uphold these standards. Overcoming these constraints will take concerted efforts in nursing education, administration, practice and research.
This article explores some nursing research done by the author illustrating nurses' experiences with decision-making in ethical issues. The article then looks at how we can foster ethical decision-making in nursing practice. Nurses in the author's study described their experience of decision-making in relation to the ethical issue of prolongation of life. The results of the study portrayed nurses' descriptions in terms of an overall theme of senselessness. Senseless decision-making was a major finding in the study and included inadequate involvement of the patient, inadequate involvement of the family, inadequate involvement of the nurse, and fragmentary team decision-making. Nurses' descriptions of a senseless decision-making process are examined by the author in terms of conflict and powerlessness. The author concludes by reviewing recent nursing literature suggesting how we can move from senseless to ethical decision-making in nursing practice.
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An 18 week abortus had been prenatally diagnosed as a 45,X/46,XY mosaic. The fetus was a phenotypic male with glandular hypospadias, a horseshoe kidney and asymmetric gonadal dysgenesis. This case represents a rare instance of prenatally diagnosed 45,X/46,XY mosaicism with an abnormal phenotype.
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