Physicians' Access to Ethics Support Services in Four European Countries
Samia A. Hurst, Stella Reiter-Theil, Arnaud Perrier, Reidun Forde, Anne-Marie Slowther, Renzo Pegoraro & Marion Danis
Health Care Analysis 15 (4):321-335 (2007)
Abstract
Clinical ethics support services are developing in Europe. They will be most useful if they are designed to match the ethical concerns of clinicians. We conducted a cross-sectional mailed survey on random samples of general physicians in Norway, Switzerland, Italy, and the UK, to assess their access to different types of ethics support services, and to describe what makes them more likely to have used available ethics support. Respondents reported access to formal ethics support services such as clinical ethics committees (23%), consultation in individual cases (17.6%), and individual ethicists (8.8%), but also to other kinds of less formal ethics support (23.6%). Access to formal ethics support services was associated with work in urban hospitals. Informal ethics resources were more evenly distributed. Although most respondents (81%) reported that they would find help useful in facing ethical difficulties, they reported having used the available services infrequently (14%). Physicians with greater confidence in their knowledge of ethics (P = 0.001), or who had had ethics courses in medical school (P = 0.006), were more likely to have used available services. Access to help in facing ethical difficulties among general physicians in the surveyed countries is provided by a mix of official ethics support services and other resources. Developing ethics support services may benefit from integration of informal services. Development of ethics education in medical school curricula could lead to improved physicians sensititity to ethical difficulties and greater use of ethics support services. Such support services may also need to be more proactive in making their help availableAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s10728-007-0072-6
My notes
Similar books and articles
Development of clinical ethics services in the UK: a national survey.Anne Marie Slowther, Leah McClimans & Charlotte Price - 2012 - Journal of Medical Ethics 38 (4):210-214.
Patient involvement in clinical ethics services: from access to participation and membership.Gerald Neitzke - 2009 - Clinical Ethics 4 (3):146-151.
Ethical difficulties in nursing, educational needs and attitudes about using ethics resources.C. Leuter, C. Petrucci, A. Mattei, G. Tabassi & L. Lancia - 2012 - Nursing Ethics (3):0969733012455565.
Research on clinical ethics and consultation. Introduction to the theme.Stella Reiter-Theil & George J. Agich - 2008 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 11 (1):3-5.
Empirical assessments of clinical ethics services: implications for clinical ethics committees.Laura Williamson - 2007 - Clinical Ethics 2 (4):187-192.
Clinical ethics support services in the UK: an investigation of the current provision of ethics support to health professionals in the UK.A. Slowther - 2001 - Journal of Medical Ethics 27 (90001):2i-8.
Can UK Clinical Ethics Committees Improve Quality of Care?Leah McClimans, Anne-Marie Slowther & Michael Parker - 2012 - HEC Forum 24 (2):139-147.
Ethik in der Klinik – Theorie für die Praxis: Ziele, Aufgaben und Möglichkeiten des Ethik-Konsils. [REVIEW]Stella Reiter-Theil - 1999 - Ethik in der Medizin 11 (4):222-232.
A report on small team clinical ethics consultation programmes in Japan.M. Fukuyama, A. Asai, K. Itai & S. Bito - 2008 - Journal of Medical Ethics 34 (12):858-862.
Survey on the experience in ethical decision-making and attitude of Pleven University Hospital physicians towards ethics consultation.Silviya Aleksandrova - 2008 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 11 (1):35-42.
Analytics
Added to PP
2013-11-24
Downloads
56 (#212,736)
6 months
1 (#449,844)
2013-11-24
Downloads
56 (#212,736)
6 months
1 (#449,844)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Evaluating the effectiveness of clinical ethics committees: a systematic review.Chiara Crico, Virginia Sanchini, Paolo Giovanni Casali & Gabriella Pravettoni - 2021 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 24 (1):135-151.
Ethical challenges and how to develop ethics support in primary health care.Lillian Lillemoen & Reidar Pedersen - 2013 - Nursing Ethics 20 (1):96-108.
Ethics reflection groups in community health services: an evaluation study.Lillian Lillemoen & Reidar Pedersen - 2015 - BMC Medical Ethics 16 (1):25.
The development of a descriptive evaluation tool for clinical ethics case consultations.R. Pedersen, S. A. Hurst, J. Schildmann, S. Schuster & B. Molewijk - 2010 - Clinical Ethics 5 (3):136-141.
Need for ethics support in healthcare institutions: views of Dutch board members and ethics support staff.L. Dauwerse, T. Abma, B. Molewijk & G. Widdershoven - 2011 - Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (8):456-460.
References found in this work
Ethical difficulties in clinical practice: experiences of European doctors.S. A. Hurst, A. Perrier, R. Pegoraro, S. Reiter-Theil, R. Forde, A.-M. Slowther, E. Garrett-Mayer & M. Danis - 2007 - Journal of Medical Ethics 33 (1):51-57.
Ethical case deliberation on the ward. A comparison of four methods.Norbert Steinkamp & Bert Gordijn - 2003 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 6 (3):235-246.
How physicians face ethical difficulties: a qualitative analysis.S. A. Hurst - 2005 - Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (1):7-14.
What triggers requests for ethics consultations?G. DuVal - 2001 - Journal of Medical Ethics 27 (suppl 1):24-29.
Clinical ethics, information, and communication: review of 31 cases from a clinical ethics committee. [REVIEW]R. Forde - 2005 - Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (2):73-77.