Current Functions of Italian Ethics Committees: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

A common European model should be developed, defining EC functions, member selection modalities, necessary member competences, decision-making criteria and measures for work verification. In the absence of sound empirical evidence, it would be interesting to study the effectiveness and efficiency of the different existing models.

Clinical Ethics Support for Healthcare Personnel: An Integrative Literature Review

“…The goals and responsibilities of the clinical ethics committee are to protect the rights, safety and well-being of the patient in the health care setting or human subjects in research projects (Borovecki et al 2010 ; Gaudine et al 2010 ; Slowther et al 2011 ). In addition, they are to identify and analyze ethical issues in clinical practice (Larcher et al 2010 ; Slowther et al 2001 ), promote training and education of health personnel, and provide guidance upon request (Caminiti et al 2011 ). They commonly respond to requests to address ethical issues related to ongoing as well as retrospective patient cases; identify ethical needs within clinical settings; support healthcare personnel, patients and next-of-kin (Førde and Pedersen 2011 ), find agreements and make decisions; and review research protocols (Fukuyama et al 2008 ; Gaudine et al 2010 ).…”

“…They commonly respond to requests to address ethical issues related to ongoing as well as retrospective patient cases; identify ethical needs within clinical settings; support healthcare personnel, patients and next-of-kin (Førde and Pedersen 2011 ), find agreements and make decisions; and review research protocols (Fukuyama et al 2008 ; Gaudine et al 2010 ). Clinical ethics committees are involved in responding to ethical issues, such as informed consent to treatment (Borovecki et al 2010 ; Caminiti et al 2011 ). Sometimes they provide decision-making support (Pedersen et al 2009 ) in end-of-life situations or the continuation of life support (Slowther et al 2004b ).…”

“…Sometimes they provide decision-making support (Pedersen et al 2009 ) in end-of-life situations or the continuation of life support (Slowther et al 2004b ). Clinical ethics committees can also provide education, seminars, workshops and training in ethics for hospital employees (Borovecki et al 2010 ; Caminiti et al 2011 ; Pedersen et al 2009 ). They can review research protocols (except in the United States, where separate committees deal with this process), provide ethical input into hospital policies (Pedersen et al 2009 ) and create guidelines (Slowther et al 2001 ).…”

“…Different ethics support related to case studies To determine what type of ethics support would be suitable for the Croatian health care system A number of steps need to be taken in order for Croatian ethics committees to develop the kind of robust institutional education programs that can foster and support the ethics case deliberation model: (1) clarification of the selection criteria for committee membership, (2) ethics committees should assume the responsibility of educating healthcare teams as their first priority and, (3) ethics committees should facilitate the creation of a database of cases presenting ethical dilemmas. Caminiti et al ( 2011 ). Current functions of Italian ethics committees: A cross-sectional study.…”

Perceptions of important outcomes of moral case deliberations: a qualitative study among healthcare professionals in childhood cancer care

“…Other evaluation studies do indeed seem to suggest that CESS improves the quality of care [42,43], yet few studies show whether this is actually the case and what speci c CESS outcomes actually contribute to quality of care, and in what way [44,45]. Participants did not express paediatric speci c data.…”