Chaplains can mediate between physicians and families by clarifying religious issues for physicians, who can then present treatment options informed by a patient’s priorities. Ideally, family and religious values and a physician’s judgment should work together to inform decision making.
How can clinicians respond to the health challenges associated with global climate change? This month on Ethics Talk, we learn about how art can communicate the health effects of climate change, the challenges that hot and humid days pose for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and what the global health risk of climate change means for individual clinicians.
AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor James Aluri, a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University, interviewed Dr. Autumn Fiester, PhD, about strategies for defusing “difficult” patient-clinician relationships.
Public health and climate stabilization historically have competed for public funds, but investment in either good has the potential to advance both goods.
Although sharing health records with psychiatric patients may cause harm, clinicians also must consider beneficence and autonomy in making this decision.