Ethical Problems in Emergency Medicine A Discussion-based Review

by Jesus, John; Rosen, Peter; Adams, James; Derse, Arthur R.; Grossman, Shamai; Wolfe, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780470673478
• ISBN10: 0470673478
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-13
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book is designed to consolidate the relevant literature as well as the thoughts of professionals currently working in the field into a practical and accessible reference for the emergency medical technician, student, nurse, resident, and attending emergency physician. Each chapter is divided into four sections: case presentation, discussion, review of the current literature, and recommendations. Designed to serve simultaneously as a learning and reference tool, each chapter begins with a real case that was encountered in an ED setting. The case presentation is followed by a short discussion of the case, as if at a morbidity and mortality conference, by a panel of experienced attending physicians explaining how they would approach the ethical dilemmas associated with the case, and a review of the existing literature.

Author Biography

John Jesus, MD, Chief Resident, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Clinical Instructor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Christiana Care Health System, Newark, DE, USA.

Peter Rosen, MD, FACS, FACEP, Director of Education, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Shamai A. Grossman, MD, MS, FACEP, Vice Chair for Resource Utilization; Director, Cardiac Emergency Center, Division of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Arthur R. Derse, MD, JD, FACEP, Director, Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Julia and David Uihlein Professor of Medical Humanities; Professor of Bioethics and Emergency Medicine, Institute for Health and Society, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA.

James G. Adams, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA.

Richard Wolfe, MD, Chief of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Table of Contents

Preface

Challenging Professionalism

Physician Care of Family, Friends or Colleagues

The impaired physician

Disclosure of Medical Error and Truth Telling

Conflicts between patients' requests and physician obligations

Judgmental attitudes and opinions in the Emergency Department

Ramana Feeser

Using Physicians as Agents of the State

End of Life Decisions

Family-Witnessed Resuscitation in the ED: Making sense of ethical and practical considerations in an emotional debate

Palliative Care in the Emergency Department

Refusal of Life Saving Therapy

Revisiting Comfort-Directed Therapies: Death and Dying in the ED, Including Withholding and Withdrawal of Life-sustaining Treatment

Futility in Emergency Medicine

Representing Vulnerable Populations

The care of minors in the emergency department

Chemical Restraints, Physical Restraints, and Other Demonstrations of Force

Capacity determination in the patient with altered mental status

Obstetric Emergency: Perimortem C-section

Outside Influence and Observation

Non-medical observers in the emergency department

Religion and Emergency Medicine

Non-physician influence on the scope and responsibilities of an emergency physician

Privacy and Confidentiality: particular challenges in the emergency department

Emergency Medicine Outside the ER

Short-Term International Medical Initiatives

Disaster triage

The Emergency Physician as a Bystander outside the Hospital

Military objectives vs. patient interests

Public Health as Emergency Medicine

Treatment of potential organ donors

Mandatory and Permissive Reporting Laws: Conflicts in Patient Confidentiality, Autonomy and the Duty to Report

Ethics of care during a pandemic

Education and Research

Practicing medical procedures on the newly or nearly dead

Ethics of Research without Informed Consent

Appendix: Useful resources

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.