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.
Caring well for dying patients requires understanding how prognosis, culture, policy, and training shape physicians’ capacities to communicate with and care for dying patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E678-682. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.678.
Katherine Gentry, MD, MA and Aaron Wightman, MD, MA
A patient’s refusal of tracheostomy during an anticipated difficult intubation prompts critical questions about how to best express respect for a pediatric patient’s autonomy and whether and when deviation from standard of care is clinically and ethically appropriate.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E683-689. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.683.
Consideration of what constitutes sufficient information about how donation protocols can interfere with a patient’s dying process is a key feature of consent processes.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E708-716. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.708.
Clinical momentum—increasingly aggressive treatment in intensive care settings that can violate a patient’s wishes—is charged by ritually intensifying efforts to “save” a patient, reimbursement patterns that privilege acute interventions, and technology-driven health care.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E732-737. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.732.