The total concentration, power tools, and high stakes of the OR provided an exciting escape from the world I was supposed to occupy and from which I was supposed to derive my deepest satisfaction as a woman.
In clinical settings, chaplains are key communicators who help mediate between patients, families, and the medical team. This month on Ethics Talk, we explore how chaplains help patients and families articulate their goals and navigate logistical and emotional challenges that arise in the hospital.
Awareness of transference reactions, practicing active listening and reflection, pausing, and articulating one’s understanding of another’s emotional motivations can help cultivate deeper patient-clinician relationships at the end of life.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E717-723. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.717.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
Rehabilitation environments are structured to accommodate cross-disciplinary patient care. In this story, one physician shares what she learned in a hospital playroom about rehabilitation, interprofessional collaboration, and patient-centered service delivery.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(9):960-964. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.9.mnar1-1609.
J. Corey Williams, MD, MA, Ashley Andreou, MD, MPH, and Susan M. Cheng, EdLD, MPP
Faculty who lack skill in addressing negative bias in learning environments can erode safety, especially among underrepresented students, trainees, and patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(1):E6-11. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.6.
There are at least two considerations here: the patient’s perception of a physician’s empathic expression and the physician’s level of comfort with expressing empathy and attending to patients’ emotions.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(2):111-115. doi:
10.1001/virtualmentor.2015.17.2.ecas1-1502.
Dr J. Corey Williams joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Ashley Andreou and Susan M. Cheng: “How Should We Approach Faculty Who Create Hostile Learning Environments for Underrepresented Students and Trainees?”