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A penetrating look at the values, systems, and life-and-death dramas in the world of the surgical intensive care unit.
The origin of modern intensive care units (ICUs) has frequently been attributed to the widespread provision of mechanical ventilation within dedicated hospital areas during the 1952 Copenhagen polio epidemic. However, modern ICUs have developed to treat or monitor patients who have any severe, life-threatening disease or injury. These patients receive specialized care and vital organ assistance such as mechanical ventilation, cardiovascular support, or hemodialysis. ICU patients now typically occupy approximately 10% of inpatient acute care beds, yet the structure and organization of these ICUs can be quite different across hospitals. In The Organization of Critical Care: An Evidence-Based A...
Provides the requisite knowledge and practical guidelines for some of the most common counseling situations. Today's rabbis, in addition to being spiritual leaders of their congregations, are also expected to be competent counselors to members of their community. Yet rabbis often feel inadequately prepared for the difficult challenges of their counseling role. To many, rabbinic counseling appears deceptively simple, requiring no more than good intuition, fair judgment and sincere empathy. Good counseling, in reality, is a complex process requiring a combination of knowledge, skill, self-awareness and an understanding of human dynamics. This groundbreaking book—written specifically for community rabbis and religious counselors—reflects the wisdom of seasoned professionals, who provide clear guidelines and sensible strategies for effective rabbinic counseling.
The impressive advances in medical technology in the last half-century have helped to save thousands of lives that would have been lost due to organ failures. However, the use of this technology in clinically irreversible settings can result in the undue delay of the death process. Throughout its chapters, this book highlights the various facets of the controversial ethical dilemma of the end of life. It provides a historical background to this discussion, its philosophical underpinnings, and the perspectives of various religions on this journey along treatment obstinacy. The book helps the reader to see and understand this problem from a holistic perspective, and to apprehend other major questions about life and death. It is a book to be read by all those who are concerned with death in modern societies and particularly with medical ethics and professional conduct.
Most Americans, when pressed, have a vague sense of how they would like to die. They may imagine a quick and painless end or a gentle passing away during sleep. Some may wish for time to prepare and make peace with themselves, their friends, and their families. Others would prefer not to know what's coming, a swift, clean break. Yet all fear that the reality will be painful and prolonged; all fear the loss of control that could accompany dying. That fear is justified. It is also historically unprecedented. In the past thirty years, the advent of medical technology capable of sustaining life without restoring health, the expectation that a critically ill person need not die, and the convictio...
From about 1850, American women physicians won gradual acceptance from male colleagues and the general public, primarily as caregivers to women and children. By 1920, they represented approximately five percent of the profession. But within a decade, their niche in American medicine--women's medical schools and medical societies, dispensaries for women and children, women's hospitals, and settlement house clinics--had declined. The steady increase of women entering medical schools also halted, a trend not reversed until the 1960s. Yet, as women's traditional niche in the profession disappeared, a vanguard of women doctors slowly opened new paths to professional advancement and public health ...
This major new work updates and significantly expands The Hastings Center's 1987 Guidelines on the Termination of Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care of the Dying. Like its predecessor, this second edition will shape the ethical and legal framework for decision-making on treatment and end-of-life care in the United States. This groundbreaking work incorporates 25 years of research and innovation in clinical care, law, and policy. It is written for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals and is structured for easy reference in difficult clinical situations. It supports the work of clinical ethicists, ethics committee members, health lawyers, clinical educators, scholars, and policymakers. It includes extensive practical recommendations. Health care reform places a new set of challenges on decision-making and care near the end of life. The Hastings Center Guidelines are an essential resource.
A clear and concise statement of facts and causes that have led step by step to the present deplorable condition of public affairs and the corruption of the body politic"--Preface.
Bioethics is the application of ethics to the broad field of medicine, including the ethics of patient care, research, and public health. In this book, prominent authors from around the globe discuss the complexities of bioethics as they apply to our current world. Topics range from the philosophical bioethics of the evolution of thinking about marriage from a religious standpoint to the bioethics of radiation protection to value-based medicine and cancer screening for breast cancer. Bioethics in Medicine and Society is wide-ranging, with additional chapters on the ethics of geoengineering, complementary and alternative medicine, and end-of-life ethical dilemmas. Readers with find that the field of bioethics has broad implications throughout society from our most intimate interpersonal relationships to policies being implemented on a global scale.
This book addresses new and evolving thorny issues in clinical ethics consultation. It is a book for our time. The contributors provide essential critical reflection on the standards and methods of training clinical ethics consultants as the field seeks to professionalize. This collection incorporates both North American and European experts, offering different perspectives on issues such as marginalized populations, the opioid epidemic, complex discharge, micro-managing families, and continually challenging issues at the end-of-life, such as determinations of brain death, physician-assisted death, and futility. The authors engage the complexities of choosing for others when making decisions...