Dr. Jones has a duty to determine how the test results were lost and why, disclose this information to his patient, Mrs. Taylor, and see that she is not held responsible for the costs of rerunning the test.

When a child or family begins to stand out because of patterns in history or physical findings, physicians must determine whether to take a closer look at the situation.

Physicians new to a case might object to an established care plan. Practice variation, clinical momentum, and how value is assigned by different parties to acute care and comfort measures can each contribute to conflict in these cases.

Physicians must express compassion when discussing risk and success rates of palliative surgery.

Physicians need to help surrogate decision makers to make treatment and end-of-life decisions for those with severe neurological damage by proving a realistic prognosis and maintain strong lines of communication.

Moral distress can be reduced by approaching the patient-physician relationship with empathy and humility, which foster trust and good communication.

An exploration of what could have been done to help the immigrant family of a severely ill child with his care.

For some patients whose survival is extended by disease-modifying interventions, little guidance about clinical and ethical complexities exist.

Word usage and intentional clarity will influence how patients feel about that Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy surgery.

A surgeon’s duty is to identify goals of care, including those about quality of life, from a patient’s perspective and to consider how to achieve them.