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Results for “Midwest Bioethics Center”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Educational initiatives in long-term care--Midwest Bioethics Center's Kansas nursing home project.

Most Americans would doubtless agree that positive change is a critical need in facilities providing long-term care. This article describes a project currently underway in which Midwest Bioethics Center (MBC) staff and Kansas City area experts in long-term care are doing their part to create meaningful change in the way residents of nursing homes are cared for in the last chapter of their lives.

Communication↗

PubMed1999

The PATHWAYS Hospital Project.

In 1995, the Hospital Ethics Committee Consortium organized by Midwest Bioethics Center created the PATHWAYS to Patient-Centered Palliative Care: A Community Approach--a guideline document, or "how to" manual for hospitals that want to improve care of the seriously ill and dying. Following the publication and wide dissemination of this manual, the Center began to implement strategies to produce positive change in the way hospitals respond to dying persons and their families. Spurred by the same desire to alter hospital culture through improved care of the dying, eleven hospitals collaborated with the Center to form the PATHWAYS Hospital Project.

Guidelines as Topic↗

PubMed1999

The Kansas City palliative care curriculum--medical schools improve end-of-life training.

Midwest Bioethics Center believes that encouraging palliative care training in the school milieu is one of the keys to achieving lasting improvement in end-of-life care. Therefore, a cooperative venture to increase palliative care education in medical schools was among the first strategies envisioned in the Center's PATHWAYS initiative. Its implementation, no less than its goal, requires both time and effort.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1999

Educating nurse leaders in ethics and end-of-life care.

The Midwest Bioethics Center's Nursing Leadership Institute 1999 focused on leadership in ethics and end-of-life care. Twenty-four nurses attended the four-day retreat, during which national speakers, community experts, and Center staff facilitated the continuing education of nurse leaders dedicated to improving end-of-life care in their communities. All participants in the Institute agreed to design and implement a community project for their constituency. Project reports will be made prior to the next nursing leadership institute. This article examines the role of nurses in providing end-of-life care.

Education, Nursing, Continuing↗

PubMed1999

PATHWAYS to improve end-of-life care--a community approach.

Midwest Bioethics Center responded to the SUPPORT study with a strategic initiative called PATHWAYS to Improve End-of-Life Care: A Community Approach. This article introduces that initiative and reviews its substantial contributions in the broad sense. The effects of this program, although its evaluation has yet to be completed, are far-reaching because PATHWAYS tackled the problem of dying, not as a medical problem, but as a problem for the community as a whole.

Community Health Services↗

PubMed2001

Learning from different cultures--a cultural diversity project in end-of-life care.

In January 1997, Midwest Bioethics Center (MBC) launched PATHWAYS to Improve End-of-Life Care, a three-year multifaceted community initiative to improve care of the dying in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Pathways focused on professional education and development, institutional reform, and public engagement, using thirteen different strategies to accomplish dozens of projects. Ultimately, more than 2,000 professionals and other community leaders were involved and more than 600 organizations participated. This article describes a cultural diversity project on end-of-life care that developed from this program.

Attitude to Death↗

PubMed1999

Lessons from the field--health care experiences and preferences in a Latino community.

As part of Midwest Bioethics Center's PATHWAYS to Improve End-of-Life Care project, we conducted an exploratory study in the Latino community of Kansas City to understand health beliefs, practices, and values, particularly as they relate to end-of-life care. We conducted ten focus groups and interviewed more than seventeen individuals who serve the Latino community in a social service, ministry, or health care capacity. We found that people were very concerned with "barriers to health care" (our term), and very willing to reveal their preferences for health care decision making and end-of-life care treatment options. We believe that bioethicists should conduct other, similar projects because they can improve our engagement with the Latino population and help Latinos find a greater voice in health care settings.

Communication Barriers↗

PubMed2000

Collaborative ethics: a standing renal dialysis ethics committee.

We describe a unique, award-winning, multidisciplinary, standing committee focused on ethical issues associated with chronic dialysis. The committee was formed as a collaboration between the National Kidney Foundation of Kansas and Western MO affiliate and the Midwest Bioethics Center, Kansas City, MO in June 1995 to serve the local nephrology community. The committee is comprised of experienced nephrologists, dialysis nurses, and social workers, as well as clergy, medical ethicists, and patient representatives. Committee membership has remained relatively stable over the 4 years of its existence, creating a collaborative spirit among members, which is noteworthy because members are otherwise competing with each other for patients. The committee provides education in a variety of forms, from case consultations to organized seminars. We believe this committee is valuable to the care of patients on dialysis in our local community and that similar committees can be created in other affiliates. We can envision a national network of such committees that together could work on issues in ways that serve both the local and national level.

Community Health Services↗

PubMed1994

HEC consortium survey: current perspectives of physicians and nurses.

At the request of the Midwest Bioethics Center (MBC), we surveyed nurses' and physicians' attitudes and needs regarding Hospital Ethics Committees (HECs). The primary objective of this research project was to inform the practices and policies of the Ethics Committee Consortium of the Bioethics Center. Four thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine surveys were distributed to the medical and nursing staff of eight Kansas City metropolitan area hospitals. One thousand and fifty-five surveys were returned, representing a response rate of 21%. This survey examined five areas believed to be related to nurse and physician use of and participation on HECs: [1] Training in Biomedical Ethics; [2] Nature and Purpose of HECs; [3] HEC Functions-Case Consultation; [4] Ethical Decision-Making and Patient Care; and [5] Continuing Education. Important findings include lack of knowledge regarding whether case review is required or optional, and whether recommendations are binding or advisory; a perception that training in medical ethics was inadequate; and a strong indication that HECs should be accessible. These findings are consistent with and extend the findings of prior descriptive research in this area.

Adult↗

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↗

PubMed2002

On the road to reform: advocacy and activism in end-of-life care.

This paper argues that the general public is, and should be, an important source of activity in end-of-life care reform. Two roles for the public are described: personal advocacy and public activism. The first relates to the role of private citizens in advocating on their own or a loved one's behalf at the end of life to secure quality palliative care. The second relates to the role of leaders in mobilizing reform efforts on behalf of the larger society. These roles overlap and often function to bolster one another. Numerous examples of how advocacy often transforms into activism and how activism relies on advocacy are given, drawn from the experience of directing Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of-Life Care, a national program housed at Midwest Bioethics Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Communications Media↗

PubMed1999

My mother's gift--the link between honesty and hope.

Doctors and other care providers often refuse to be direct and straightforward with patients needing end-of-life care because they do not want to take away hope. But the resiliency of hope is not linked with continuing life. Using introspection, a review of the literature, and a sampling of opinions gleaned from members and friends of the Midwest Bioethics Center, the author of this article concludes that all patients should be given full and forthright knowledge about the prognoses--not in spite of the patient's need for hope, but in hope's service.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed2001

Notes from the field--an adventure in multiculturalism.

M.C. Sullivan was formerly the Executive Vice President of Midwest Bioethics Center. During her tenure at MBC, she was awarded a Kornfeld Foundation fellowship to pursue fieldwork in multicultural healthcare ethics. This article reports on her project, which involved travel in Europe, Asia, Central and North America, and the Caribbean, to experience indigenous culture, and to learn, in the United States, from established agencies serving immigrant populations. The research was not conducted scientifically. The methods and findings are anecdotal and attributable only to the author.

Attitude to Death↗

PubMed1995