Every accredited American hospital is required to have a mechanism for handling ethical concerns; most hospitals satisfy this requirement by constituting an institutional healthcare ethics committee (HEC), a pattern which is repeated in most western countries. This text provides definitive, comprehensive guidance for members of healthcare ethics committees who find themselves confronted with ethically challenging situations. Each chapter includes learning objectives, clinical case studies and questions to stimulate discussion among committee members. Particular emphasis is given to consultation, as this often presents the greatest challenges to committee members. Each chapter stands alone as a teaching module, as well as forming part of a comprehensive volume. Written and edited by nationally and internationally recognized experts in bioethics, this is essential reading for every member of a healthcare ethics committee.

How can dedicated ethics committees members fulfill their complex roles as moral analysts, policy reviewers, and clinical consultants? The Joint Commission (TJC) accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations in the United States, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies. Each organization must have a standing health care ethics committee to maintain its status. These interdisciplinary committees are composed of physicians, nurses, attorneys, ethicists, administrators, and interested citizens. Their main function is to review and provide resolutions for specific, individual patient care problems. Many of these committees are well meaning but may lack the information, experience, skills, and formal background in bioethics needed to adequately negotiate the complex ethical issues that arise in clinical and organizational settings. Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees was the first book of its kind to address the myriad responsibilities faced by ethics committees, including education, case consultation, and policy development. Adopting an accessible tone and using a case study format, the authors explore serious issues involving informed consent and refusal, decision making and decisional capacity, truth telling, the end of life, palliative care, justice in and access to health care services, and organizational ethics. The authors have thoroughly updated the content and expanded their focus in the second edition to include ethics committees in other clinical settings, such as long-term care facilities, small community hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and hospices. They have added three new chapters that address reproduction, disability, and the special needs of the elder population, and they provide additional specialized policies and procedures on the book’s website. This guide is an essential resource for all health care ethics committee members.

Healthcare ethics help guide and influence the way physicians, nurses, and other members of the healthcare team care for patients and make decisions. Ethics address the moral dilemmas that arise out of conflicts with duties or obligations as well as the consequences of decision-making. As healthcare has continued to grow and evolve, so has the way healthcare ethics are handled. Nurses are uniquely positioned to serve as leaders in healthcare ethics because they are intricately involved in all aspects of patient care, including care coordination, recommendations for plans of care, provision of life-sustaining interventions, and patient education. The Nurse’s Healthcare Ethics Committee Handbook focuses on a nurse-led ethics consultative service. Authors Angeline Dewey and Andrea Holecek provide tools that nursing students, professionals, administrators, and other members of the healthcare team need to develop infrastructure and processes that support nurses in an ethics committee leadership role. Filled with real-life scenarios, this book outlines a step-by-step process for nurses to evaluate ethical cases and the risks involved

Ethics by Committee was developed for tens of thousands of people across the United States who serve on hospital ethics committees (HECs). Experts in bioethics, clinical consultation, health law, and social psychology from across the country have contributed chapters on ethics consultation, education, and policy development. The chapters discuss important considerations for HEC members such as promoting just and ethical organizations, developing cultural and spiritual awareness, and preparing for the forces of group dynamics in committee discussions and consensus building. No other book on the market offers the diversity of perspectives and topics while remaining focused, clear, and useful. Book jacket.

Approximately 85% of hospitals now have ethics committees. But this statistic says little about the efficiency and importance of these committees in their institutions. Frequently, ethics committees exist more in name than in practice, and are left without the guidance and help of their institution. Health Care Ethics Committees provides a plethora of advice, including possible projects and activities, suggestions for making meetings more effective, insights into policy-making, and models for mission statements and goals. In addition, this book gives leaders a panoramic view of the past, present, and future of ethics committees in health care.

How can dedicated health care ethics committees increase their effectiveness and demonstrate their value as essential moral resources for their organizations? Among the most effective and increasingly valued resources in the health care decision-making process is the institutional ethics committee. The Joint Commission (TJC) accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations in the United States, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies. As a condition of accreditation, TJC requires health care organizations to have available a standing multidisciplinary ethics committee, composed of physicians, nurses, attorneys, ethicists, administrators, and interested lay citizens. Many of these committees are well meaning but may lack the information, experience, skills, and formal background in bioethics needed to effectively address the range and complexity of the ethical issues that arise in clinical and organizational settings. Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees was conceived in 2007 to address the myriad responsibilities assumed by ethics committees. Using sample cases and accessible language, Linda Farber Post and Jeffrey Blustein explored applied bioethics, including informed consent and refusal, decision making and decisional capacity, truth telling, care at the beginning and end of life, palliation, justice in and access to health care services, and organizational ethics. In the third edition, Post and Blustein have thoroughly updated and reorganized the content and expanded the scope of the material, with special attention to changes in the health care landscape since the second edition was published in 2015. They also focus on communication between and among patients, care providers, and families, the demands of professionalism, the essential role that ethics committees can and should play, and how their effectiveness and value can be assessed. An entirely new chapter examines research ethics. The book also addresses the challenging ethical issues raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This guide remains an essential resource for all health care ethics committee and their members.

"In the new 2016 version of the ethical guidelines, CIOMS provides answers to a number of pressing issues in research ethics. The Council does so by stressing the need for research having scientific and social value, by providing special guidelines for health-related research in low-resource settings, by detailing the provisions for involving vulnerable groups in research and for describing under what conditions biological samples and health-related data can be used for research."--Page 4 de la couverture.

This is a book about clinical ethics consultation by two practitioners who together have done more than 700 consultations. There is not another authoritative book like it. Practical rather than theoretical in scope, the book addresses strategies for conducting consultations, relating to patients at the bedside, investigating the ethical issues, making recommendations, following up on cases, and keeping records. Chapters include issues such as the need for training, the skills needed, the problem of certification, how to set up a practice, financial compensation and billing, and the relation of the consultant to committees, particularly ethics committees. The authors include reflections about learning clinical ethics and education of committees, hospital staff, and the general public about issues that arise. The purpose is to help ethics consultants improve their conscious assessment of their work, both how they go about it and its legitimacy for patients, health care providers, and hospitals. The orientation is primarily on clinical care of patients, because the goal of such consultations is always aimed to improve patient care. Other ethics consultants might work to develop institutional policies. Although that is touched on in the book, it is not the primary goal of the authors. The book is aimed at the practitioner in bioethics in a clinical setting.

Now in its Fifth Edition, this respected reference helps readers tackle the common and often challenging ethical issues that affect patient care. The book begins with a concise discussion of clinical ethics that provides the background information essential to understanding key ethical issues. Readers then explore a wide range of real-world ethical dilemmas, each accompanied by expert guidance on salient issues and how to approach them. The book’s two-color design improves retention of material for visual learners. An accompanying website lets readers access the full text, along with features designed to reinforce understanding and test knowledge. New to the Fifth Edition: This edition includes new discussions of ethical issues as they relate to clinical practice guidelines and evidence-based medicine, electronic medical records, genetic testing, and opioid prescription. The book also includes an increased focus on ethical issues in ambulatory care. Readers will also find more detailed analysis of cases, more examples of ethical reasoning, more highlight pages relating clinical ethics to emergency medicine, oncology, palliative care, and family medicine. Also new are discussions of quality improvement and use of advance care planning rather than advance directives.