PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Vangie Bergum

Publications and source records attributed to Vangie Bergum.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

To stay or to go, to speak or stay silent, to act or not to act: moral distress as experienced by psychologists.

The moral distress of psychologists working in psychiatric and mental health care settings was explored in an interdisciplinary, hermeneutic phenomenological study situated at the University of Alberta, Canada. Moral distress is the state experienced when moral choices and actions are thwarted by constraints. Psychologists described specific incidents in which they felt their integrity had been compromised by such factors as institutional and interinstitutional demands, team conflicts, and interdisciplinary disputes. They described dealing with the resulting moral distress by such means as silence, taking a stance, acting secretively, sustaining themselves through work with clients, seeking support from colleagues, and exiting. Recognizing moral distress can lead to a significant shift in the way we perceive moral choices and understand the moral context of practice.

Codes of Ethics↗
PubMed2004

Relational ethics and genetic counseling.

Genetic counseling is viewed as a therapeutic interrelationship between genetic counselors and their clients. In a previous relational ethics research project, various themes were identified as key components of relational ethics practice grounded in everyday health situations. In this article the relational ethics approach is further explored in the context of genetic counseling to enhance our understanding of how the counselor-client relationship is contextually developed and maintained. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six adult clients undergoing genetic counseling for predictive testing. Engagement, dialogue and presence were revealed as relevant to genetic counselor-client relationships. A relational ethics approach in genetic counseling challenges the concept of nondirectiveness and may enhance the outcome of counseling for both counselor and client.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Addressing oppression in psychiatric care: a relational ethics perspective.

In this article we consider oppression in psychiatric care from a relational ethics perspective. We identify the vulnerability of psychiatric patients and the concomitant difficulties that confront medical health practitioners. We suggest that healthcare practitioners can become desensitized to systemic problems in the routine provision of care, that attention to protocols and procedural guidelines is not sufficient to reduce oppression in care, and that the discussion necessary to do so may not be generally supported within clinical environments. We conclude by proposing that the concept of fittingness may allow practitioners to recognize and resolve oppressive aspects of care in a better way and that a culture of questioning needs to be fostered within psychiatry care settings.

Behavior Control↗
PubMed2003

Unable to answer the call of our patients: mental health nurses' experience of moral distress.

When health practitioners' moral choices and actions are thwarted by constraints, they may respond with feelings of moral distress. In a Canadian hermeneutic phenomenological study, physicians, nurses, psychologists and non-professional aides were asked to identify care situations that they found morally distressing, and to elaborate on how moral concerns regarding the care of patients were raised and resolved. In this paper, we describe the experience of moral distress related by nurses working in mental healthcare settings who believed that lack of resources (such as time and staff) leads to dispiritedness, lack of respect, and absence of recognition (for both patients and staff) which severely diminished their ability to provide quality care. The metaphors of flashlight and hammer are used to elaborate nurses' possible responses to intolerable situations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2003

Relational pedagogy. Embodiment, improvisation, and interdependence.

In this paper Gadow's philosophical themes are developed considering the pedagogical relation--the relation of teacher and student, nurse and patient, self and world. Relational pedagogy is discussed through exploration of embodiment (being the teaching), improvisation (doing the teaching), and interdependence (locating the teaching in a reciprocal world as home). The pedagogical relation explores the lived space between teacher and learner, nurse and patient, where new knowledge is constructed. Such knowledge 'resounds bodily' and is always under construction.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMed2003

Ethical perspectives for public and environmental health: fostering autonomy and the right to know.

In this paper we develop an ethical perspective for public and environmental health practice in consideration of the "right to know" by contrasting consequential and deontological perspectives with relational ethics grounded in the concept of fostering autonomy. From the consequential perspective, disclosure of public and environmental health risks to the public depends on the expected or possible consequences. We discuss three major concerns with this perspective: respect for persons, justice, and ignorance. From a deontological perspective, the "right to know" means that there is a "duty" to communicate about all public health risks and consideration of the principles of prevention, precaution, and environmental justice. Relational ethics develops from consideration of a mutual limitation of the traditional perspectives. Relational ethics is grounded in the relationship between the public and public/environmental health providers. In this paper we develop a model for this relationship, which we call "fostering autonomy through mutually respectful relationships." Fostering autonomy is both an end in public health practice and a means to promote the principles of prevention, precaution, and environmental justice. We discuss these principles as they relate to practical issues of major disasters and contaminants in food, such as DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, and mercury.

Disaster Planning↗