JONA'S healthcare law, ethics and regulation
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Clinical ethics teams exist in various forms and have assisted care providers for several decades. Our clinical ethics service at an urban, tertiary, teaching hospital provides ethics consultation to care providers, patients, and their family members. Scenarios prompting an ethics consultation may be complex, often involving social, cultural, and fiscal components. ⋯ Our study results indicate that issues prompting ethics consults may potentially be identified as patients present to the ED. Rapid and effective interventions proscribed through institutional policy guidelines could greatly assist nurses and other ED providers in identifying these at-risk patients upon entry of the ED. Such a policy would ultimately benefit both patient and provider.
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The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is the federal legislation governing the transfer of patients. This law is often confusing for healthcare providers. ⋯ This article outlines the EMTALA requirements to clearly relay the critical elements of this important piece of legislation and to illustrate how EMTALA applies to hospital nursing practice. All nurses in administrative and management roles need to be aware of the requirements of this law in order to educate and guide their nursing staff so that the facility remains in compliance.
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JONAS Healthc Law Ethics Regul · Jul 2006
Caring theory as an ethical guide to administrative and clinical practices.
This article explores the conventional relationship between caring, economics, and administrative practices that no longer serve patients, practitioners, or systems. A shift toward human caring values and an ethic of authentic healing relationships is required as systems now have to value human resources and life purposes, inner meanings, and processes for workers and patients alike, not just economics alone. This shift requires a professional ethos with renewed attention to practice that is ethics/values-based and theory-guided, alongside evidence and economics. Emergent professional, caring-theory-guided practice options are presented, which are grounded on this deeper ethical moral and theoretical foundation for transforming the practitioners and the system.