Browsing by Subject "Professional-Patient Relations"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

The "difficult patient" reconceived: an expanded moral mandate for clinical ethics
(2020-10-13) Fiester, Autumn M.
Between 15%-60% of patients are considered "difficult" by their treating physicians. Patient psychiatric pathology is the conventional explanation for why patients are deemed "difficult." But the prevalence of the problem suggests the possibility of a less pathological cause. I argue that the phenomenon can be better explained as responses to problematic interactions related to healthcare delivery. If there are grounds to reconceive the "difficult" patient as reacting to the perception of ill treatment, then there is an ethical obligation to address this perception of harm. Resolution of such conflicts currently lies with the provider and patient. But the ethical stakes place these conflicts into the province of the ethics consult service. As the resource for addressing ethical dilemmas, there is a moral mandate to offer assistance in the resolution of these ethically charged conflicts that is no less pressing than the more familiar terrain of clinical ethics consultation.
Serious ethical violations in medicine: dealing effectively with outlier peers
(2020-02-11) DuBois, James M.
[Note: The video is not available from this event.] This presentation will engage the problem of serious ethical violations in medicine (SEMs). Examples of SEMs include criminal prescribing of controlled substances, performing unnecessary surgeries for profit, and sexually abusing patients. SEMs harm patients, waste scarce resources, and profoundly damage trust in medicine, particularly when institutions are perceived as enabling abuse. Drawing from his NIH-funded study of more than 300 cases of SEMs, DuBois will share findings on the motives and environmental factors that enable violations to occur. While SEMs are relatively rare, the current oversight system is ineffective at preventing repeat instances of SEMs by offenders. DuBois will share consensus recommendations offered by a diverse panel of physician leaders and educators, lawyers, ethicists, and patient advocates, and explore the ethical and practical challenges involved in reforming oversight and disciplinary systems.
Struggling to catch up: families, identities, and narrative care
(2014-12-09) Lindemann, Hilde
Families perform many morally valuable functions for their own members, not the least of which is providing care when they are ill or injured. Hilde Lindemann, Ph.D., argues that a second family function -- that of sustaining their members' personal identities -- is deeply implicated in that care. After explaining the narrative nature of identity maintenance, she discusses three cases where family care givers must find the right stories to repair the identity of one of their own: where the identity has been repudiated, where the identity lies at the limits of responsibility, and where the patient has lost her second nature. As Dr. Lindemann examines these cases, she argue that if health care professionals recognize and respect this familial caring labor, they can do a better job of providing the patient with their own form of care.
Taking care of Muslim patients: spiritual, gender, & end-of-life issues in focus
(2016-02-09) Padela, Aasim I.
This presentation will empower allied healthcare professionals, bioethicists, researchers and chaplains with enhanced literacy in the religious and moral dimensions of healthcare delivery. It will use empirical data and case stories from Muslim patients related to end-of-life healthcare provision, and pertaining to requests for same-sex healthcare providers, in order to identify the Islamic ethico-legal values that undergird the healthcare accommodations requested. Moving from theory to practice, the presentation will then focus on analyzing the ethical and practical challenges that emerge in providing culturally-sensitive and ethically justifiable healthcare to the Muslim population.