{"title":"Positioning Ethics When Direct Patient Care is Prioritized: Experiences from Implementing Ethics Case Reflection Rounds in Childhood Cancer Care.","authors":"Pernilla Pergert, Bert Molewijk, Cecilia Bartholdson","doi":"10.1007/s10730-024-09541-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Caring for children with cancer involves complex ethical challenges. Ethics Case Reflection (ECR) rounds can be offered to support teams to reflect on challenges and what should be done in patient care. A training course, for facilitators of ECR rounds, has been offered to healthcare professionals (HCPs) in childhood cancer care by a Nordic working group on ethics. During/after the course, the trainees implemented and facilitated ECR rounds in their clinical setting. The aim was to explore the trainees' experiences of implementing ECR rounds in childhood cancer care. HCPs, who participated as trainees in the course, participated in 3 focus group interviews (n = 22) and 27 individual interviews (n = 17). Interview data were analysed concurrently with data collection following classic grounded theory. Positioning ethics is the core category in this study, used to resolve the main concern of doing ethics in a context where direct patient care is prioritized. Being able to take time for ethics reflections, not perceived as the key priority, was considered a luxury in the clinical setting. Strategies for positioning ethics include allying, promoting ethics reflection, scheduling ethics reflection, and identifying ethical dilemmas. These strategies can be more or less successful and vary in intensity. The prioritisation of direct patient care is not surprising, but polarisation between care and ethics needs to be questioned and ethics reflection need to be integrated in standard care. Ethical competence seems to be central in doing ethics and more knowledge on the promotion of ethical competence in practice and education is needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46160,"journal":{"name":"Hec Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Hec Forum","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-024-09541-6","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Caring for children with cancer involves complex ethical challenges. Ethics Case Reflection (ECR) rounds can be offered to support teams to reflect on challenges and what should be done in patient care. A training course, for facilitators of ECR rounds, has been offered to healthcare professionals (HCPs) in childhood cancer care by a Nordic working group on ethics. During/after the course, the trainees implemented and facilitated ECR rounds in their clinical setting. The aim was to explore the trainees' experiences of implementing ECR rounds in childhood cancer care. HCPs, who participated as trainees in the course, participated in 3 focus group interviews (n = 22) and 27 individual interviews (n = 17). Interview data were analysed concurrently with data collection following classic grounded theory. Positioning ethics is the core category in this study, used to resolve the main concern of doing ethics in a context where direct patient care is prioritized. Being able to take time for ethics reflections, not perceived as the key priority, was considered a luxury in the clinical setting. Strategies for positioning ethics include allying, promoting ethics reflection, scheduling ethics reflection, and identifying ethical dilemmas. These strategies can be more or less successful and vary in intensity. The prioritisation of direct patient care is not surprising, but polarisation between care and ethics needs to be questioned and ethics reflection need to be integrated in standard care. Ethical competence seems to be central in doing ethics and more knowledge on the promotion of ethical competence in practice and education is needed.
期刊介绍:
HEC Forum is an international, peer-reviewed publication featuring original contributions of interest to practicing physicians, nurses, social workers, risk managers, attorneys, ethicists, and other HEC committee members. Contributions are welcomed from any pertinent source, but the text should be written to be appreciated by HEC members and lay readers. HEC Forum publishes essays, research papers, and features the following sections:Essays on Substantive Bioethical/Health Law Issues Analyses of Procedural or Operational Committee Issues Document Exchange Special Articles International Perspectives Mt./St. Anonymous: Cases and Institutional Policies Point/Counterpoint Argumentation Case Reviews, Analyses, and Resolutions Chairperson''s Section `Tough Spot'' Critical Annotations Health Law Alert Network News Letters to the Editors