August A Culbert, Alejandro Bribriesco, Michael S O'Connor, Eric Kodish
{"title":"Navigating Informed Consent and Patient Safety in Surgery: Lessons for Medical Students and Junior Trainees.","authors":"August A Culbert, Alejandro Bribriesco, Michael S O'Connor, Eric Kodish","doi":"10.1086/726816","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726816","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractIn the operating room, patient safety is of paramount importance. Medical students and junior trainees, despite their primary role as students, may play active roles in assessing patient safety and reporting suspected errors. Active consent is one layer of patient safety that is continuously assessed by several team members. This article examines an instance where patient consent may have been violated. Through the lens of trainee and senior perspectives, we discuss the ethical principles at stake and provide recommendations for medical student and junior trainee involvement in patient care when an error is suspected.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"278-281"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Patient Autonomy: How a Student's Surgical Experience Highlights the Need for a New Standard Operating Procedure.","authors":"Theresa McAlister Mairson","doi":"10.1086/726814","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726814","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractThe concerns regarding patient autonomy presented in August A. Culbert et al.'s \"Navigating Informed Consent and Patient Safety in Surgery: Lessons for Medical Students and Junior Trainees\" fall just short of addressing the main issue. Patient autonomy is not something that just one member of a team should consider, and it should not be something that any protocol should have the power to subvert, particularly in an environment as tenuous as the operating room. This article will take the concerns regarding the ethics of removing a patient's hearing aid prior to entering the operating room presented in the aforementioned article and show the necessity for a new standard operating procedure.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"285-287"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Patients with Invisible Pain: How Might We See This Pain and Help These Patients More?","authors":"Edmund G Howe","doi":"10.1086/726812","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726812","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractIn this piece I discuss two ways in which providers may become able to treat patients better. The first is for them to encourage all medical parties, including medical students, to always speak up. The second is to take initiatives to learn of pain that patients feel but neither show nor spontaneously report. They may refer to this pain as invisible pain, often bitterly, in that others not seeing their pain judge them wrongly and harshly. Providers, once seeing this pain, are encouraged to then take additional measures to try to alleviate it. Clinical examples provided to illustrate the range of treatments providers may add are post-traumatic stress disorders, problems involving substance use, and hoarding disorders. Similar concerns regarding people who are deaf and hard of hearing are also addressed.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"219-224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parker Crutchfield, Tyler S Gibb, Michael J Redinger
{"title":"Default Positions in Clinical Ethics.","authors":"Parker Crutchfield, Tyler S Gibb, Michael J Redinger","doi":"10.1086/726809","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726809","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractDefault positions, predetermined starting points that aid in complex decision-making, are common in clinical medicine. In this article, we identify and critically examine common default positions in clinical ethics practice. Whether default positions ought to be held is an important normative question, but here we are primarily interested in the descriptive, rather than normative, properties of default positions. We argue that default positions in clinical ethics function to protect and promote important values in medicine-respect for persons, utility, and justice. Further, default positions in clinical ethics may also guard against harm. Where default positions exist, there are epistemic burdens to overturn them. The person wishing to reject the default position, rather than the person endorsing it, bears this burden. The person who bears the burden of meeting the epistemic requirements must provide evidence proportional to the degree of harm the default position protects against. Default positions that protect against significant harm impose significant epistemic requirements to overturn. This asymmetry not only makes medical decision-making more economical but also serves to promote and protect certain values. The identification and analysis of common and recognizable default positions can help to identify other default positions and the conditions under which their associated epistemic requirements are met. The article concludes with considerations of potential problems with the use of default positions in clinical ethics.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"258-269"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Permanent Sterilization in Nulliparous Patients: Is Legislative Anxiety an Indication for Surgery?","authors":"Catherine Hennessey, Camille Johnson, Hillary McLaren, Neha Bhardwaj, Katherine Rivlin, Julie Chor","doi":"10.1086/727435","DOIUrl":"10.1086/727435","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractThe Supreme Court's <i>Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization</i> decision, first leaked to the public on 2 May 2022 and officially released on 24 June 2022, overturned <i>Roe v. Wade</i> and thereby determined that abortion is no longer a federally protected right under the Constitution. Instead, the decision gives individual states the right to regulate abortion. Since the <i>Dobbs</i> decision first leaked, our institution has received numerous requests for permanent contraception from individuals stating that their motivation to pursue permanent contraception was influenced by the <i>Dobbs</i> decision and concerns about their reproductive autonomy. Discussions with patients seeking permanent contraception since the Supreme Court's leaked decision have led us to ask ourselves, is legislative anxiety an indication for surgery? This article presents a case series consisting of a convenience sample of 17 young, nulliparous individuals who sought out permanent contraception in the six months following the leak of the <i>Dobbs</i> decision. Healthcare professionals often feel discomfort in offering permanent contraception to young and nulliparous individuals. Accordingly, we discuss pertinent legal issues, review relevant ethical considerations, and offer a framework for these discussions intended to empower the consulting healthcare professional to center the bodily autonomy of every patient regardless of age, parity, or indication for permanent contraception.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 4","pages":"320-327"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138291974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Capacity Assessment in Emergency Surgery.","authors":"Darren S Bryan, Selwyn O Rogers","doi":"10.1086/726817","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726817","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractInformed consent is a necessary component of the ethical practice of surgery. Ideally, consent is performed in a setting conducive to a robust patient-provider conversation, with careful consideration of risks, benefits, and outcomes. For patients with medical or surgical emergencies, navigating the consent process can be complicated and requires both careful and expedited assessment of decision-making capacity. We present a recent case in which a patient in need of emergency care refused intervention, requiring urgent capacity assessment and a modification to usual care.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"270-272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Guideline-Concordant Standardized Care Results in Healthcare Disparities.","authors":"Micah Prochaska, David Meltzer, Peter Angelos","doi":"10.1086/726815","DOIUrl":"10.1086/726815","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractClinical red blood cell transfusion guidelines have been widely adopted in clinical practice, resulting in standardized transfusion practices in hospitalized patients with anemia. Standardization of transfusion practice has been welcomed by clinicians and health systems as a mechanism for reducing unnecessary, harmful, and costly practice variation that results in healthcare disparities. However, overzealously applied guidelines can have deleterious consequences for individual patients, ultimately resulting in and/or exacerbating healthcare disparities, rather than resolving them. This article provides empirical examples of the adverse consequences from the well-meaning attempt to standardize transfusion practice based on clinical practice guidelines and discusses the ethical implications of standardized transfusion practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 3","pages":"225-232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41215394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reducing Moral Distress by Teaching Healthcare Providers the Concepts of Values Pluralism and Values Imposition.","authors":"Autumn Fiester","doi":"10.1086/727437","DOIUrl":"10.1086/727437","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractThere is a clear need for interventions that reduce moral distress among healthcare providers (HCPs), given the high prevalence of moral distress and the far-ranging negative consequences it has for them. Healthcare ethics consultants are frequently called upon to manage moral distress, especially among nursing staff. Recently, researchers have both broadened the definition of moral distress and demarcated subcategories of the phenomenon with the intent of creating more targeted and effective interventions. One of the most frequently occurring subcategories of moral distress in this new taxonomy has been labeled \"moral-constraint distress,\" though scholars have argued that not all constraints on HCPs' moral agency are inappropriate given the often-competing healthcare values of patients, families, and clinical staff. To attempt to reduce the instances of moral distress in cases in which the constraints on HCPs' moral agency are justified, we propose an intervention that focuses on shifting the HCPs' \"frame of reference\" on moral-constraint distress, teaching HCPs how to distinguish unjustified and justified constraints on their moral agency. The anchors of this blueprint for reducing moral-constraint distress are the philosophical concepts of \"values pluralism\" and \"values imposition.\" The rationale for this intervention is that, in situations where the constraint on moral agency is justified but the experience of moral distress could nevertheless be severe, the emphasis needs to be on helping the HCP to \"think differently\" rather than \"act differently.\"</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 4","pages":"296-306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138291975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Should Providers Defer versus Impose Their Views?","authors":"Edmund G Howe","doi":"10.1086/727439","DOIUrl":"10.1086/727439","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AbstractThis piece discusses perhaps the most agonizing ethical decision ethics consultants and other providers encounter. This is the extent to which providers should defer decisions to patients or to their proxy decision makers as opposed to imposing their own views as to what they think is ethically right. It discusses the most difficult issues these providers may encounter, especially when they wish to depart from authoritative bodies' standards or guidelines, and it presents initial steps providers may take to help patients and their families work together to resolve these dilemmas more harmoniously. It highlights how providers may inadvertently impose flawed biases on patients and families. Finally, it discusses how providers should take initiative with both parties to offer to help appeal when these avenues already exist and seek to establish the appellate procedures when they are absent.</p>","PeriodicalId":39646,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Ethics","volume":"34 4","pages":"289-295"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138291977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}