JONA'S healthcare law, ethics and regulation
-
Increasingly, clinicians are under a moral duty to report errors to the patients who are injured by such errors. The sources of this duty are identified, and its probable impact on malpractice litigation and criminal law is discussed. ⋯ One predicted consequence is that the trend will be accelerated toward government payment of compensation for errors. The effect of truth-telling on individuals is discussed.
-
JONAS Healthc Law Ethics Regul · Mar 2000
Ethical decision making in nurses. Relationships among moral reasoning, coping style, and ethics stress.
Stress related to ethical decision-making is a serious consequence of frequent encounters with ethical dilemmas for oncology nurses. A descriptive, correlational design using survey techniques was used as a study design with a nationwide sample of 229 oncology nurses. The results indicated nurses experienced an average of 32 different types of ethical dilemmas within the past year on a daily basis. ⋯ Forty-three percent of the sample indicated they use an independent or "sovereign" style of moral reasoning, 23% rely on or accommodate to the judgment of others, and 34% use characteristics of both moral reasoning styles. Understanding the relationships among style of moral reasoning, coping style, and ethics stress can assist nurses and administrators to deal more effectively with the increased moral distress found in many oncology practice settings today. Findings suggest specific interventions for reducing ethics stress in this population of nurses.
-
JONAS Healthc Law Ethics Regul · Sep 1999
Spotlight on ... the American Organization of Nurse Executives. The new nursing shortage.
The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) strives to provide its members with timely and useful information. In this article, the author describes AONE's work to guide the policy process about nurse shortages. The results of this survey will help you practice in your position and in your state, regional, and national policy work. ⋯ In response to the increasing reports of nurse shortages, AONE engaged the HSM Group, Ltd. to conduct a survey to determine if hospitals were experiencing a shortage. The survey questions were developed with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Division of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources of the American Hospital Association. The Research on Nursing Staff Shortage was published in 1999.
-
Growing evidence suggests that advance directives (ADs) are often ineffective. Further explanation of how these documents are viewed by the public, the expectations of how decisions about treatment are made, and, in particular, patients' understanding of how ADs are actually used in the clinical setting, are warranted. This article details a descriptive study in which patients were interviewed, during hospital stays, about their beliefs and understanding of advanced directives, as well as the processes used in completing them. ⋯ Findings show that many patients were able to clearly articulate what an AD means in terms of making their choices known. However, misconceptions were found in patients' understanding of ADs and only 46% reported discussing their ADs with a physician. Strategies for effective implementation of education programs related to ADs are detailed here.