TY - JOUR T1 - What triggers requests for ethics consultations? JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - i24 LP - i29 DO - 10.1136/jme.27.suppl_1.i24 VL - 27 IS - suppl 1 AU - Gordon DuVal AU - Leah Sartorius AU - Brian Clarridge AU - Gary Gensler AU - Marion Danis Y1 - 2001/04/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/27/suppl_1/i24.abstract N2 - Objectives—While clinical practice is complicated by many ethical dilemmas, clinicians do not often request ethics consultations. We therefore investigated what triggers clinicians' requests for ethics consultation. Design—Cross-sectional telephone survey. Setting—Internal medicine practices throughout the United States. Participants—Randomly selected physicians practising in internal medicine, oncology and critical care. Main measurements—Socio-demographic characteristics, training in medicine and ethics, and practice characteristics; types of ethical problems that prompt requests for consultation, and factors triggering consultation requests. Results—One hundred and ninety of 344 responding physicians (55%) reported requesting ethics consultations. Physicians most commonly reported requesting ethics consultations for ethical dilemmas related to end-of-life decision making, patient autonomy issues, and conflict. The most common triggers that led to consultation requests were: 1) wanting help resolving a conflict; 2) wanting assistance interacting with a difficult family, patient, or surrogate; 3) wanting help making a decision or planning care, and 4) emotional triggers. Physicians who were ethnically in the minority, practised in communities under 500,000 population, or who were trained in the US were more likely to request consultations prompted by conflict. Conclusions—Conflicts and other emotionally charged concerns trigger consultation requests more commonly than other cognitively based concerns. Ethicists need to be prepared to mediate conflicts and handle sometimes difficult emotional situations when consulting. The data suggest that ethics consultants might serve clinicians well by consulting on a more proactive basis to avoid conflicts and by educating clinicians to develop mediation skills. ER -