Category / End of Life Ethics
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End-of-Life Care in the Nursing Home
End-of-Life Care in the Nursing Home – Is a Good Death Compatible with Regulatory Compliance By using relevant clinical practice guidelines for end-of-life care and by incorporating meaningful quality indicators into an effective continuous quality improvement program, nursing facilities can provide quality end-of-life care for their residents while complying with state and federal regulations.
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Educational Initiatives in Long-Term Care
Educational Initiatives in Long-Term Care Most Americans would doubtless agree that positive change is a critical need in facilities providing long-term care. This article describes a project in which staff from the Midwest Bioethics Center (now the Center for Practical Bioethics) and Kansas City area experts in long-term care worked to create meaningful change…
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Hospice in the Nursing Home – A Valuable Collaboration
Hospice in the Nursing Home Long-term care facilities have one of the most difficult tasks in healthcare: to maximize the health of frail elderly people. However, our society’s resistance to the natural process of dying commands the assistance of hospice services in helping patients and their families cope with illness and death. The presence of…
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Pathways to Convergence Report
Pathways to Convergence Report The Center for Practical Bioethics with the support of Pew Charitable Trusts engaged a small group of Catholic leaders from clinical, clerical, ethical, and theological perspectives in an extended discussion to explore areas of convergence and divergence around palliative care and advance care planning in American society. This steering group independently…
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Advocating for the Dying – The View of Family and Friends
Advocating for the Dying – The View of Family and Friends Imagine you are being forced to play a game. You don’t know the rules. People playing the game with you know the rules but don’t bother to explain them. They can be changed at any time, depending on who is in charge. Some…
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Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Different Approach
Physician Assisted Suicide – A Different Approach More requests for physician-assisted suicide are not due to present suffering. Steps must be designed to uncover the real roots of the desire so that they can be specifically addressed. Examples of such steps are proposed.
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The Case of Melinda and Matt: Ethical Indicators of Futility in Critically Ill New Mother
Who is responsible for healthcare decisions of this 31-year-old African American woman? Should her advance directive be honored?
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The Case of Jennie M: To Tube Feed or Not
Jennie has an advance directive which does not address artificial nutrition. Who makes this decision now that Jennie can’t speak for herself?
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The Case of Jesse, Unrepresented and Homeless
A 60-year-old homeless man, “Jesse,” is found confused and in distress by a passerby who calls 911. Paramedics bring the man to the hospital. Jesse’s feet and legs are swollen and covered in ulcers and dead tissue—diagnosed as osteomyelitis, or infection of his legs.
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The Case of Joe
“Joe” is a 62-year-old building contractor who has been in an ICU for the past 10 weeks. He had gone to his community hospital for bypass surgery (CABG) and aortic valve repair (AVR), and things didn’t go well post-op. His sternal wound became infected with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
