Pragmatic Judgments In Direct Patient Care

Why does a hospital need an ethics consultation? And what about this counselling is ethical? The book explains the background of the development of clinical ethics counselling. It provides new insights into serious decision-making conflicts in everyday clinical life and uncovers the disputes that followed in public. In the search for the ethical understanding of clinical ethics counselling, the book comes across previously unexplored evidence. Step by step, a system is reconstructed that reveals the shape of a significant philosophical school of thought.

Why does a hospital need an ethics consultation? And what about this counselling is ethical? The book explains the background of the development of clinical ethics counselling. It provides new insights into serious decision-making conflicts in everyday clinical life and uncovers the disputes that followed in public. In the search for the ethical understanding of clinical ethics counselling, the book comes across previously unexplored evidence. Step by step, a system is reconstructed that reveals the shape of a significant philosophical school of thought.

"Mooi Standing's book provides an excellent application of the principal concepts of Cognitive Continuum Theory; her presentation is clear, accurate and her inferences show that she has a first rate grasp of the implications of the theory, and what it means for the care of patients. Her work should stand as a monument to the application of psychological theory to nursing care." Professor Emeritus Kenneth R. Hammond, University of Colorado, USA Sound clinical judgement and decision-making is vital to delivery of high quality, patient-centred, nursing and interprofessional healthcare. This book integrates the theory and practice of decision-making to guide and enhance practitioners' understanding and clinical expertise. Mooi Standing presents relevant, contemporary theory and research that relates decision-making to: Professional identity Organization of healthcare Developing knowledge and skills Selecting and applying the most appropriate intervention in clinical practice Real case studies written by various advanced practitioners demonstrate how to apply theory to practice in reviewing, explaining and continually developing clinical judgement and decision-making skills. A patient's account of care received for a serious illness provides a valuable patient-centred insight. The author's new 'reflexive-pragmatism' model summarizes the key knowledge, skills, values and processes of clinical judgement and decision-making, for readers to apply in reviewing and enhancing their own clinical practice. Extensive reflective activities and self assessment tools are included throughout the book. Clinical Judgement and Decision-Making is essential reading for qualified nurses, midwives and allied health professionals undertaking CPD modules in judgement and decision-making, evidence-based practice and reflective practice or studying to be advanced practitioners. Contributors: Kate Dewar, Carolyn Jackson, Peter Ellis, Antonio Sama, Roger Goldsmith, Elizabeth Duck, Douglas MacInnes, Susan Plummer, Hesham Hassan, Michael Standing

Should you wash your hands? -- Are workarounds ethical? -- Turfing, bending, and gaming -- Dirty hands and the semiclear conscience -- Problems of humanity -- Ethics without heroics : foreseeing moral problems in complex systems

The Ethics of Managed CareA Pragmatic Approach Mary R. Anderlik A breakthrough reappraisal of the managed healthcare debate. Discussions of managed care frequently begin and end with an opposition between the Hippocratic ethic of dedication to patient welfare and a business ethic of self-interest in the service of efficiency. Mary R. Anderlik approaches managed care as a problem of organizations. Rejecting a simple "medicine vs. business" analysis, she directs attention to management as manipulation, the neglect of such personal goods as satisfaction in professional accomplishment, and organizational moral myopia. In this account, "pragmatic" suggests practical idealism, not the jettisoning of principle in the interests of expediency. In The Ethics of Managed Care, Anderlik favors a broad empiricism and a moral vision centered on values of democracy and community. She describes how organizations can nourish or destroy openness, creativity, cooperation, and faithfulness -- and display "virtues" such as justice, integrity, responsiveness, and efficiency, rightly understood. She uses community care clinics, asthma outreach programs, and new contexts for participatory decision-making to show the promise of managed care. She also explains the complexities of financial arrangements, arguing for an end to schemes that reward clinicians for providing less care and profiting from avoiding people who need a lot of it. The book concludes with a look at the future of managed care, proposing a program for reform. Mary R. Anderlik is Research Professor at the Health Law and Policy Institute, University of Houston Law Center. Medical Ethics SeriesDavid H. Smith and Robert M. Veatch, editors April 2001352 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4cloth 0-253-33848-4 $39.95 s / £30.50

This new edition provides the essential clinical guidance both for those embarking upon a career in palliative medicine and for those already established in the field. A team of international experts here distil what every practitioner needs to know into a practical and reliable resource.

Polls tell us almost nothing about how people make up their minds.

Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments this book describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. Professional spatial planning in the US, and globally, continues to suffer from a weak conceptual grasp of its own practice. Practitioners routinely recognize the value and wisdom of practical judgment finely attuned to context, nuance and complexity; but later offer banal testimony and glib stories of ‘just so’ best-practice discrediting the ambiguity of their own experience. The chapters in this book provide a vocabulary tailored to the conventions of practical judgment, challenging students and practitioners to treat professional expertise as work in progress rather than ‘best’ practice. Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments, Hoch describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. The pragmatist plan helps cope with complexity rather than control it, making it invaluable in the anyone’s pursuit of a planning career. This book will appeal to a wide cross section of students and scholars, especially those working in urban planning, public policy, and government.