Article Text
Abstract
Clinical ethics consultations exist to support patients, families and clinicians who are facing ethical or moral challenges related to patient care. They provide a forum for open communication, where all stakeholders are encouraged to express their concerns and articulate their viewpoints. Ethics consultations can be requested by patients, caregivers or members of a patient’s clinical or supportive team. Although patients and by extension their families (especially in cases of decisional incapacity) are the common denominators in most ethics consultations, these constituents are the least likely to request them. At many healthcare organisations in the USA, ethics consultations are overwhelmingly requested by physicians and other clinicians. We believe it is vital that healthcare institutions bridge the knowledge gaps and power imbalances over access to ethics consultation services through augmented policies, procedures and infrastructure. With enhanced education and support, patients and families may use ethics consultation to elevate their voices and prioritise their unique characteristics and preferences in the delivery of their healthcare. Empowering patients and families to request ethics consultation can only strengthen the patient/family–clinician relationship, enhance the shared decision-making model of care and ultimately lead to improved patient-centred care.
- autonomy
- ethics committees/consultation
- clinical ethics
- patient perspective
Data availability statement
All data relevant to the study are included in the article.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Taking the burden off: a study of the quality of ethics consultation in the time of COVID-19
- Optimising the documentation practices of an Ethics Consultation Service
- Views regarding the training of ethics consultants: a survey of physicians caring for patients in ICU
- Ethics consultation in paediatric and adult emergency departments: an assessment of clinical, ethical, learning and resource needs
- Ethics rounds: affecting ethics quality at all organisational levels
- Ethics consultation on demand: concepts, practical experiences and a case study
- How physicians face ethical difficulties: a qualitative analysis
- Characterisation of organisational issues in paediatric clinical ethics consultation: a qualitative study
- A report on small team clinical ethics consultation programmes in Japan
- Implementing clinical ethics in German hospitals: content, didactics and evaluation of a nationwide postgraduate training programme