Conscience at the End of Life.

IF 2.4 Q1 NURSING

Nursing Reports Pub Date : 2024-12-19 DOI:10.3390/nursrep14040298

Ralph Neil Baergen, James Skidmore

{"title":"Conscience at the End of Life.","authors":"Ralph Neil Baergen, James Skidmore","doi":"10.3390/nursrep14040298","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background/objectives: Caring for patients at the end of life can involve issues that are ethically and legally fraught: withholding or withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration, pain control that could hasten death, aggressive treatment that is continued when it seems only to be prolonging suffering, patients who request medical assistance in dying, and so forth. Clinicians may find that their deeply held ethical principles conflict with law, institutional policy, or patients' choices. In these situations, they may consider either refusing to participate in procedures that they find morally abhorrent (conscientious refusal) or providing care that they believe to be ethically obligatory despite being contrary to law or policy (conscientious commitment).Methods: This paper reviews the ethical issues involved.Results: Each of the usual policies for handling conscientious refusals faces serious challenges.Conclusions: Healthcare providers who refuse to provide medical services should be expected to explain their reasons, make prompt referrals, and bear some of the resulting costs or burdens.","PeriodicalId":40753,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Reports","volume":"14 4","pages":"4091-4108"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11676207/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nursing Reports","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/nursrep14040298","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NURSING","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background/objectives: Caring for patients at the end of life can involve issues that are ethically and legally fraught: withholding or withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration, pain control that could hasten death, aggressive treatment that is continued when it seems only to be prolonging suffering, patients who request medical assistance in dying, and so forth. Clinicians may find that their deeply held ethical principles conflict with law, institutional policy, or patients' choices. In these situations, they may consider either refusing to participate in procedures that they find morally abhorrent (conscientious refusal) or providing care that they believe to be ethically obligatory despite being contrary to law or policy (conscientious commitment).

Methods: This paper reviews the ethical issues involved.

Results: Each of the usual policies for handling conscientious refusals faces serious challenges.

Conclusions: Healthcare providers who refuse to provide medical services should be expected to explain their reasons, make prompt referrals, and bear some of the resulting costs or burdens.

查看原文本刊更多论文

生命尽头的良心。

背景/目的：临终关怀患者可能涉及伦理和法律上令人担忧的问题：停止或停止人工营养和水合作用，可能加速死亡的疼痛控制，在似乎只会延长痛苦的情况下继续进行积极治疗，临终时请求医疗援助的患者，等等。临床医生可能会发现他们根深蒂固的伦理原则与法律、制度政策或患者的选择相冲突。在这些情况下，他们可能会考虑拒绝参与他们认为在道德上令人憎恶的程序（良心拒绝）或提供他们认为在道德上有义务的护理，尽管违反法律或政策（良心承诺）。方法：对涉及的伦理问题进行综述。结果：处理良心拒服兵役的常规政策均面临严峻挑战。结论：医疗服务提供者拒绝提供医疗服务应解释其原因，及时转诊，并承担一些由此产生的费用或负担。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Nursing Reports NURSING-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

4.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： Nursing Reports is an open access, peer-reviewed, online-only journal that aims to influence the art and science of nursing by making rigorously conducted research accessible and understood to the full spectrum of practicing nurses, academics, educators and interested members of the public. The journal represents an exhilarating opportunity to make a unique and significant contribution to nursing and the wider community by addressing topics, theories and issues that concern the whole field of Nursing Science, including research, practice, policy and education. The primary intent of the journal is to present scientifically sound and influential empirical and theoretical studies, critical reviews and open debates to the global community of nurses. Short reports, opinions and insight into the plight of nurses the world-over will provide a voice for those of all cultures, governments and perspectives. The emphasis of Nursing Reports will be on ensuring that the highest quality of evidence and contribution is made available to the greatest number of nurses. Nursing Reports aims to make original, evidence-based, peer-reviewed research available to the global community of nurses and to interested members of the public. In addition, reviews of the literature, open debates on professional issues and short reports from around the world are invited to contribute to our vibrant and dynamic journal. All published work will adhere to the most stringent ethical standards and journalistic principles of fairness, worth and credibility. Our journal publishes Editorials, Original Articles, Review articles, Critical Debates, Short Reports from Around the Globe and Letters to the Editor.