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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Role of ethics committees, ethics networks, and ethics centers in improving end-of-life care.

This article chronicles the work of Midwest Bioethics Center, several community-state partnerships, and other local and national initiatives to determine their proper role and appropriate contribution. Professional education and development, institutional reform, and community engagement are areas of concern because ethics committees, networks, and centers sponsor workshops and conferences on palliative care for healthcare professionals, hold public forums, develop advance care planning projects, and provide expertise to legislators and other policymakers. The leading edge of the work being done by ethics committees, networks, and centers appears to be using continuous quality improvement methods, specifically the development of quality indicators, to promote accountability in end-of-life care reform efforts. This work is something that ethics committees can and should take on.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

The roles and functions of hospital-based ethics committees.

Ethics committees ar becoming much more visible on the Canadian health care scene. They range from research-ethics committees that decide whether research projects are ethically sound to case-oriented committees that look at particular issues and give advice. Eike-Henner Kluge says that ethics committees are useful tools, but only when they are appropriately constituted and function in a professional manner. Otherwise, he warns, they become either useless or a liability.

Canada↗
PubMed1996

Perioperative nurses' involvement on nursing ethics committees.

Ethics issues in health care are evolving constantly; however, perioperative nurses often feel unprepared or unqualified to deal with aspects of ethical decision making. Through involvement as members of a nursing ethics committee, perioperative nurses can obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to assist patients and peers in ethical decision making. Participation on nursing ethics committees improves perioperative nurses' levels of moral reasoning, enhances their ethical decision-making and patient advocacy skills, and increases their professional satisfaction.

Ethics Committees↗
PubMed1994

The future of healthcare ethics committees.

Ethics committees are fairly common in healthcare institutions in the United States. Comprised of a multidisciplinary membership, including physicians, their functions within institutions are generally threefold: policy recommendation, ethics education and case consultation. The number of such committees will grow as a result of "Patient Rights" standards established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (1992 Manual). The author projects and discusses five areas of development and change in the future of healthcare ethics committees. These five areas are: 1) renewed efforts to educate healthcare professionals, 2) cooperation and collaboration among ethics committees, 3) networking with community-based ethics groups, 4) clearer delineation of responsibilities and limitations, and 5) continuous quality improvement. The ability of ethics committees to address successfully these areas of change will determine their future usefulness.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Educating the ethics committee.

Ethics committees are being formed in all types of institutions. Education is the foundation of a functioning committee. The purpose of the education is to prepare the multidisciplinary committee members to deal with difficult ethical issues in a changing healthcare environment. In this article, the authors address different methodologies that can be used for educating ethics committees.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1989

Initiating and maintaining an ethics committee.

Ethics committees are an evolving approach to conflict resolution. They provide education and set Institutional policy. They are an exciting and sometimes frightening reflection of changing health care, as issues involving allocation of scarce resources, withholding or withdrawing treatment, autonomy and the patient's right to refuse treatment, and access to care arise in clinical care. This article has described how to initiate and maintain an ethics committee, as well as the nurse's pivotal role in identifying conflict and assisting in conflict resolution. Cranford and Roberts offer a few timeless tips for the beginning committee. They advise forming the committee with three or four people who have expressed interest, rather than recruiting those who may lose interest. More than three or four people may be needed to conduct committee business, so if recruiting is necessary, select compassionate people who are not likely to monopolize the meetings. Likewise, the chair should be affable yet assertive. Recognize that ethics committees will function differently from institution to institution, so comparisons may not be helpful. Proceed toward goals, but pay attention to the process of committee function and modify the process as needed. Finally, proceed at a pace most comfortable to members of the committee and to the institution. The pace may seem slow, but attitudes toward the committee, which may be negative at first, are slow to change. The end result is a viable body of caring people to address the needs of its institution, its staff, and most importantly, its patients and families. That is the goal we all seek.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Governing boards as facilities' principal ethics committees.

Ethics is the systematic analysis of our (individual and organizational) behavior's impact on the dignity of persons. It is the disciplined approach to choosing the better alternative for respecting dignity. Any group that primarily deals with issues that have a deep and broad impact on the dignity of persons should be recognized as an ethics committee. In organizations such as hospitals, the chief among these groups is the board of trustees because governance responsibility concerns the most far-reaching and fundamental questions of the organization's life and its impact on its employees, patients, and community. Adequate ethical reflection requires four key elements: participation of the community of concern, that community which represents all the major aspects of the problem at hand; a consensus on fundamental value priorities; shared critical methodology and conceptual tools; and appropriate process and structures. The principal focus here is on the consensus of value priorities. An agreement on general values such as justice, charity, and compassion can be assumed to exist, but dealing with specifics reveals considerable diversity and even conflict. Therefore a group charged with governance responsibilities must build a consensus on the meaning of key values in terms of making specific decisions and then further specify these values in probing questions, key indicators, criteria, and auditing methods.

Christianity↗
PubMed2001

Ethics committees. Research ethics: beyond the guidelines.

There is international recognition of the need for sustainable research ethics committees to provide ethical review of human subjects research in developing countries, but many developing countries do not have such committees (often called 'IRBs'). Theoretical and practical uncertainties encountered by an IRB on the Caribbean island of Grenada offer insight into ethical review of research in developing countries. Theoretical uncertainties include questions about whether means of ensuring confidentiality and obtaining informed consent will be effective in local settings, and whether deviations from Western norms are justifiable. International guidelines are helpful in addressing these concerns, but are subject to interpretation. Guidelines are less helpful in practical areas like selecting members or chairs. They do not address what sort of procedures and paperwork will work in a developing country, or IRBs' relationships to governments that have no mandate for them. Experiences presented here show that IRBs in developing countries can sustainably adhere to international standards. Sustainability requires knowledge, personal commitment, and an official mandate to uphold international standards. Capacity building must therefore focus on educational programs to make developing country leaders knowledgeable about the value of international guidelines to their nations. Such knowledge is needed before people will become motivated to promote, implement, and uphold their guidelines. People in developing countries must help design bridges to help their nations put international standards into practice. The structure of such bridges may, of necessity, very in different settings.

Committee Membership↗
PubMed1998

Determining the function of a hospital clinical ethics committee: making ethics work.

The objective of this study was to identify ethical issues of greatest concern to hospital staff, and to establish perceptions regarding the optimal function of a Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC). The design involved a descriptive, cross-sectional study using a self-report questionnaire, which was sent to a random sample of medical, nursing, allied health, technical and administrative staff working at the John Hunter Hospital (a 650-bed, urban, teaching hospital in New South Wales) in September 1995. The questionnaires were sent to 565 staff and completed by 287: an overall compliance rate of 51%. Although the majority of staff supported the existence of the CEC in principle, approximately two-thirds were actually aware of its existence and less than 10% were aware of policies/guidelines produced by the CEC. Ethical issues of greatest concern to respondents were informed consent and confidentiality. Most believed that the main function of the CEC should be education and policy development; fewer supported a role in case consultation or case review, and even less believed that the CEC should take any role in resource allocation decisions. While there is a strong degree of support for the existence of a CEC, there is considerable variation in opinion regarding what should be its function and how it should be organized. The results of this study provide some insight into the issues associated with the emergence of CECs in an Australian context.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

A new role for institutional ethics committees: organizational ethics.

New methods for financing and managing healthcare organizations have caused concerns regarding how these changes will affect the ethics of the care of patients. To address these concerns, the JCAHO has, for the first time, promulgated a standard requiring that each HCO develop and operate under a code of organizational ethics. This standard is now a part of the requirements that JCAHO will consider in its accreditation of HCOs. Development of the required code is mandatory for JCAHO subscribers and will, by necessity, need to be addressed by each institution. An IEC is the proper forum for undertaking this work.

Codes of Ethics↗