Description
Book SynopsisHow 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
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Curriculum for Ethics Committees
1. Ethical Foundations of Clinical Practice
2. Decision Making and Decisional Capacity in Adults
3. Informed Consent and Refusal
4. Truth Telling: Disclosure, Privacy, and Confidentiality
5. Special Decision-Making Concerns of Minors
6. Ethical Issues in Reproduction
7. Special Decision-Making Concerns of the Elderly
8. Ethical Issues in the Care of Disabled Persons
9. End-of-Life Issues
10. Palliation
11. Justice, Health, and Access to Health Care
12. Organizational Ethics
13. Ethics Committees and Research, by Julia Kolak
II. The Creation, Nature, and Functioning of Ethics Committees
14. Profile of Ethics Committees
15. Clinical Ethics Consultation
16. Ethics Education
17. Sample Clinical Cases
18. Sample Policies and Procedures
III. Organizational Codes of Ethics
IV. Key Legal Cases, Legislation, and State Action
V. An Ethics Committee Meeting
Epilogue: Ethics in the Context of a Global Pandemic
Index
