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Orchestrating social change: an imperative in care of the chronically ill.

The ethical challenges of caring for the chronically ill are of increasing concern to nurses as they attempt to create humanitarian environments for long-term care. This article suggests two ethical perspectives to guide the agenda of the nursing profession to achieve social change in the care of the chronically ill and aging. First, a reemphasis on the public duties of the professions is recommended which extends beyond serving the interests of the nursing profession to recognizing the need to serve the common good. Second, the limitations of the autonomy paradigm are explored and the foundation for the development of a new moral paradigm is analyzed in terms of its' potential usefulness in addressing ethical problems of chronic illness. Several initiatives that nursing must undertake to facilitate the emergence of this paradigm are proposed.

Chronic Disease↗

Human values teaching programs in the clinical education of medical students.

Medical school deans and faculty members were surveyed by the Association of American Medical Colleges to obtain information on 1984-85 courses designed to improve students' ability to examine their values in relation to those of patients, communicate effectively with patients, or think critically about cultural, social, and ethical issues arising in medical care. Of the 126 deans contacted, 113 supplied course descriptions, and 99 responded to survey questions about the integration of human values programs into students' clinical education. Ninety-five schools reported that at least one human values course was required during the first or second year of the curriculum; 38 schools listed a program as part of the required curriculum for the third or fourth year. The respondents reported several ways in which human values programs were integrated into clinical education. The most frequently mentioned method was reinforcement or addition of human values emphases during medical clerkships. The process considered to be most important by respondents in achieving this integration was a combination of interactions among faculty members, improvement of human values courses, and the support of the dean. The respondents also reported on the characteristics of faculty members who teach such courses, on faculty development efforts, on barriers to the integration of human values teaching into the curriculum, and on the evaluation of such courses.

Clinical Clerkship↗

Ethics and cancer: a survey of the literature.

We have identified 776 articles, books, book chapters, and letters published since 1945 dealing with both ethics and cancer. Of this number, 473 (61%) were discussions in medical and scientific journal articles; they were published in 188 journals, demonstrating the scattered nature of this literature. The recent increase of writing in ethics and cancer has been dramatic, the median year of publication being 1979. Although the majority of articles addressed more than one ethical issue, the most common topic was whether patients should be told the truth about their diagnosis and prognosis (found in 241 of the items identified). The ethics of cancer research has only recently assumed importance in the medical literature, the median year of publication being 1981. The great interest in the ethics of cancer research is evident in that 255 (33%) of the 776 items dealt with research, 104 of these focusing on randomized trials. Besides truth-telling and research, 78 other issues are being discussed, among them informed consent for adults (119 items), the physician's responsibility for psychologic management of patients (79 items) and their families (68 items), responsibilities of nurses (58 items), the use and testing of laetrile (55 items), and euthanasia (38 items). Surgery was discussed in 90 items, pediatrics in 71, and radiotherapy in 44. The authors of this literature relied upon at least nine identifiable ethical positions. Only a limited number of authors were aware of the philosophic literature and of the complexities inherent in defining such terms as "benefit," "harm," and "quality of life."

Behavioral Research↗

Principle-oriented ethics and the ethic of care: a creative tension.

Research to date in the field of nursing ethics has overlooked the nature of the guiding moral framework in nursing practice, while focusing primarily on the moral reasoning and moral behaviors among nurses. This research depicts two moral frameworks--a principle-oriented ethic and the ethic of care--as they are experienced by practicing critical care nurses. The interdependence of these two frameworks as they inform the moral experience of the nurse is demonstrated in the analysis of a complex nurse narrative that depicts the nurse's moral struggle.

Beneficence↗

Ethics and surveys.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Review of the teaching of medical ethics in London medical schools.

The study examined the influence of the Pond Report on the teaching of medical ethics in the London medical schools. A questionnaire was given to both medical students and college officers. All medical colleges reported that ethics was included in the curriculum. However, from students' replies, it seems that attendance of optional courses is low and that not all current final year medical students have had any formal teaching in medical ethics. Stronger guidelines are necessary to ensure appropriate ethical training in London medical schools.

Curriculum↗

What future for ethical medical practice in the new National Health Service?

The British Government is implementing some major alterations to the way health services in Great Britain are organised. As well as the introduction of competition between health care providers, their financial interests are to be linked to their output, in efforts to use market forces to increase efficiency and cut costs. This paper looks at the possible impact of these changes of health care organisation on ethical medical practice. This is investigated with particular reference to the country whose health service has embraced most closely these elements of the market--the United States of America. The question to be answered is whether high standards of ethical care are ensured by factors somehow intrinsic to the medical profession, and are therefore immune to changes in the economics of health care. This assumption is shown to be questionable in light of what is known about the determinants of ethical medical practice.

Codes of Ethics↗

At what level of collective equipoise does a clinical trial become ethical?

It has often been argued that if a clinician cannot decide which of two treatments to offer, a trial may be ethical, but it is unethical if she/he has a preference. Since individual clinicians usually have a preference, most trials could be judged unethical according to this line of argument. A recent important article in the New England Journal of Medicine argued that individual preferences are not as important as the collective uncertainty of informed clinicians. If clinicians are equally divided, there is a state of collective equipoise and a trial is ethical. However, clinicians will seldom be exactly equally divided. We conducted an ethometric study to find out how much collective equipoise can be disturbed before the potential subjects in a trial think that it is unethical. Half of our subjects perceived a trial as unethical when equipoise was disturbed beyond 70:30. In other words, when 70 per cent of experts favour one treatment, 50 per cent of subjects would prefer that treatment to be administered rather than subjected to critical assessment. When equipoise is disturbed beyond 80:20, less than 3 per cent of subjects would consider human trials morally justifiable.

Aged↗

Equipoise as a means of managing uncertainty: personal, communal and proxy.

Equipoise is advocated as a means of achieving high scientific and ethical standards in randomised trials. As used in the context of research the word describes a state of uncertainty characterised by the belief that in a trial no arm is known to offer greater harm or benefit than any other arm. Clinicians who lack personal equipoise are advised to accept clinical or communal equipoise, based on current unresolved disagreement among the medical profession. Equipoise is mainly discussed in the literature as an issue for senior doctors and research directors. Limitations of professional equipoise are reviewed, and data on the neglected topic of patients' equipoise are reported using the example of breast cancer trials. In theory, a patient who gives informed and voluntary consent to enter a randomised trial has achieved the equilibrium of equipoise. In practice, equipoise among patients ranges from personal to proxy acceptance.

Adult↗

Global bioethics -- myth or reality?

BACKGROUND: There has been debate on whether a global or unified field of bioethics exists. If bioethics is a unified global field, or at the very least a closely shared way of thinking, then we should expect bioethicists to behave the same way in their academic activities anywhere in the world. This paper investigates whether there is a 'global bioethics' in the sense of a unified academic community. METHODS: To address this question, we study the web-linking patterns of bioethics institutions, the citation patterns of bioethics papers and the buying patterns of bioethics books. RESULTS: All three analyses indicate that there are geographical and institutional differences in the academic behavior of bioethicists and bioethics institutions. CONCLUSION: These exploratory studies support the position that there is no unified global field of bioethics. This is a problem if the only reason is parochialism. But these regional differences are probably of less concern if one notices that bioethics comes in many not always mutually understandable dialects.

Advisory Committees↗

One size doesn't fit all: ethics of international nurse recruitment from the conceptual framework of stakeholder interests.

This theoretical study examines the ethics of international nurse recruitment from the conceptual framework of stakeholder interests. It argues that there are stakeholders at individual, institutional, national and international levels, with overlapping but, more often, different or even conflicting interests. Depending on the interests of given stakeholders, different conclusions regarding the ethics of international nurse recruitment may be reached. There is no right or wrong with these varying ethical positions because they reflect different beliefs and philosophies that are not amenable to value judgment. To illustrate and support this line of argument, this article analyzes the underpinnings of two ethical standards published by the International Council of Nurses and the UK Department of Health. In addition, a case study on China augments the argument by demonstrating limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach to the issue. The most important question in understanding and evaluating the ethical standards of international nurse recruitment is to know whose interests they are designed to represent and protect.

Career Mobility↗

Human embryonic stem cell research: an intercultural perspective.

In 1998, researchers discovered that embryonic stem cells could be derived from early human embryos. This discovery has raised a series of ethical and public-policy questions that are now being confronted by multiple international organizations, nations, cultures, and religious traditions. This essay surveys policies for human embryonic stem cell research in four regions of the world, reports on the recent debate at the United Nations about one type of such research, and reviews the positions that various religious traditions have adopted regarding this novel type of research. In several instances the religious traditions seem to have influenced the public-policy debates.

Asia↗

Underreporting research is scientific misconduct.

Substantial numbers of clinical trials are never reported in print, and among those that are, many are not reported in sufficient detail to enable judgments to be made about the validity of their results. Failure to publish an adequate account of a well-designed clinical trial is a form of scientific misconduct that can lead those caring for patients to make inappropriate treatment decisions. Investigators, research ethics committees, funding bodies, and scientific editors all have responsibilities to reduce underreporting of clinical trials. An extended use of prospective registration of trials at inception, as well as benefiting clinical research in other ways, could help people to play their respective roles in reducing underreporting of clinical trials.

Biomedical Research↗