Ethics in surgical practice.
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A prospectively controlled pilot study of 100 patients undergoing an invasive radiological procedure was undertaken to test patients' acceptance of risk disclosure and whether this increases anxiety and rate of procedure cancellation. Two sheets with differing amounts of information on adverse outcome were randomly allocated and patients provided a graded response to statements following the procedure. Eighty-one completed questionnaires were received (brief sheet n = 40; long sheet n = 41). There were 19 non-compliers with main causes either due to lack of interest or problems such as language difficulties, visual impairment and dementia. There were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to subjective anxiety caused by the information or risk of procedure cancellation. This preliminary work has shown that information sheets are well accepted and provide a simple, standardized format for risk disclosure.
OBJECTIVE: To examine public opinion regarding certain elements of consent: disclosure, advance directives, substitute decisions, emergency treatment, and advocacy. DESIGN: Cross-sectional random-digit-dialing telephonic survey. SETTING: General public. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand randomly-selected adults living in Ontario. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported attitudes and behaviors. RESULTS: Of 5,708 telephone numbers drawn, 641 were non-valid or non-residential, 1,283 were not in service, 1,068 had no answer, a busy line, or an unavailable respondent, 147 subjects had a language barrier, 1,497 subjects refused, 72 interviews were incomplete, and 1,000 interviews were completed. With regard to disclosure, 33% of respondents said that a doctor should withhold information from a patient if asked to do so by the patient's family. With regard to advance directives, 36% of respondents had had advance discussions with their families, and 12% had completed a living will. With regard to substitute decisions, 77% of respondents said that they would went their wishes followed if they were unable to make medical decisions for themselves; 58% wanted their spouse or partner to make such decisions for them. With regard to emergency treatment, 48% of respondents stated that a doctor should give a life-saving blood transfusion to an unconscious adult carrying a card stating that blood transfusion was against his or her religious beliefs. With regard to advocacy, 78% of respondents supported mandatory advocacy services for serious health decisions such as whether to have heart surgery; 33% supported advocacy services for less serious decisions such as whether to have a dental filling. CONCLUSIONS: These data highlight the need to reconsider legislative provisions regarding and/or target public education programs toward specific consent-related issues including disclosure, advance directives, substitute decisions, emergency treatment, and advocacy.
A multivariable model of characteristics in the nurse-patient relationship that influence the disclosure practices of nurses was developed to investigate the effects that characteristics of the nurse midwife, the patient, and the setting have on the disclosure practices reported by nurse midwives. Data were collected by a mailed questionnaire using multiple-choice questions and patient case studies. The questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 500 certified nurse midwives. No association occurred between variations in patient characteristics and the content disclosed by nurse midwives. Many of the patient demographic characteristics were observed to be significantly related to the method and time of disclosure. Results of the study suggested that the social as well as the immediate health-care environment influenced the disclosure of information.
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While ethical quandaries and dilemmas are commonplace for nurses, recent advances in human genetics have and will continue to create new challenges and controversies. Throughout time, nursing has been an ethical endeavour, with nurses viewing the ethical mandates of their responsibilities on a par with other core dimensions of their professional life. The (American) profession's code of ethics, Code for nurses with interpretive statements, provides direction for practice and for the fulfillment of ethical obligations. The explication of these ethical norms and values that shape professional practice is necessary as nurses confront the integration of genetic services into health care. The goal of preserving professional integrity and ethical soundness in the context of genetic health care mandates that nurses rely on and act upon the profession's national and international codes of ethics.
Satisfaction with disclosure of the diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder was investigated using a self-report questionnaire completed by 126 parents. On a rating of satisfaction, 55 percent indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the disclosure. Parents were more likely to be satisfied if they gave positive ratings to the manner of the professional and the quality of the information provided; if they had been given written information and the opportunity to ask questions; and if their early suspicions had been accepted by professionals. These factors were combined into a global index of satisfaction; those gaining higher scores were more likely to have been given the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome (as opposed to autism), to have had a definite diagnosis, and to have children who were not currently in an educational placement. These results underline the importance of the interaction between parent and professional during the disclosure interview.
HIV is on the rise among African-American women. AIDS-related stigma plays an important role in the lives of HIV-infected and non-infected African-American women. Among HIV-infected women, the decision to disclose HIV seropositive status is likely affected by perceived stigma. The first purpose of the study is to examine perceived AIDS-related stigma over a six year period and across two groups of African-American women: HIV-infected and non-infected. The second purpose of the study examines whether disclosure of HIV seropositive status moderates the relationship between stigma and psychological functioning. Participants were 98 HIV-infected and 146 non-infected African-American women, between the ages of 18 and 50. Data were collected at four points across six years. Results indicated that HIV-infected women perceived a significantly higher level of AIDS-related stigma than non-infected women at all four assessments. Perceptions of stigma did not significantly change over time for the entire sample or within either HIV group. Among HIV-infected women, as the level of perceived stigma increased, the level of disclosure and psychological functioning decreased. Regarding the hypothesized moderating relationship, at high, but not low, levels of disclosure, the relationship between stigma and distress was significant. Implications for health professionals' work with HIV-infected African-American women around the issue of disclosure and stigma are discussed.
Increased health care fraud and abuse investigations could result in home health agencies, and other targets, becoming politically acceptable casualties of war in the battle to balance the federal budget. To protect themselves, home health agencies would be well advised to conduct internal fraud and abuse audits on an annual basis and to develop corporate compliance plans (see Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 7, July 1994, at 16, and next month's issue, which will discuss corporate compliance programs as well as the OIG's new voluntary disclosure program). In addition, purchasers of home health agencies should be especially vigilant of fraud and abuse problems during the due diligence phase of the acquisition and, if problems are discovered, should consider whether voluntary disclosure to the OIG and settlement of any resulting claims is an appropriate condition of closing.
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The ethical controversy surrounding the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Medical Association (AMA) guidelines for restricting the practice of HIV-infected health professionals appears to hinge on whether we give priority to the rights of infected workers or patients. We cannot simply dismiss the concerns of patients as irrational, despite the low risks of transmission. Nor can we avoid the dispute about rights by claiming with the AMA that professionals have obligations to refrain from imposing "identifiable risks," however low, on patients. Nevertheless, allowing the full exercise of patient rights, either by giving patients the opportunity to know the risks they face and to switch providers, or by removing infected providers (compulsory switching), would make each of us worse off. This gives us adequate reason to reject these guidelines and to emphasize other infection control measures.
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American medicine is in the midst of a professional evolution driven by a refocusing of medicine's regard for the patient's viewpoint. Historically, medicine has been largely physician centered, but physicians have begun to incorporate patients' perspectives in ways that increasingly matter. Some call this shift "patient-centered" care. In support of the view that this refocusing reflects a broad professional shift, we describe the evolution to patient-centered care in many areas of medicine: patient care, health-related law, medical education, research, and quality assessment.
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Toronto physician Miriam Shuchman has spent the last 4 months tracking the research issues surrounding a controversial clinical trial conducted in Toronto. Much of the information appearing in this article was gathered while she was preparing a segment for the CBC Radio program Quirks and Quarks. Earlier, she had reported on similar issues in the US for the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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Predicting survival and disclosing the prediction to patients with advanced disease, particularly cancer, is among the most difficult tasks that physicians face. With the de-emphasis of prognosis in favor of diagnosis and therapeutics in the medical literature, physicians may have difficulty finding the survival information they need to make appropriate estimates of survival for patients who develop cancer. Quite separate from the challenge of estimating survival accurately, physicians may also find the process of disclosing the prognosis to their patients difficult. Using the vignette of a real patient with advanced cancer who far outlived her physician's prognostic estimate, we discuss clinical issues related to the science of prognosis in advanced cancer and the art of its disclosure.