Patient-Centred Care: Qualitative Findings on Health Professionals’ Understanding of Ethics in Acute Medicine

“Oh, that’s a really hard question”: Australian Findings on Ethical Reflection in an Accident and Emergency Ward

“…The important overall finding from the study set in the A&E Department is that it echoes the results from the earlier work set in an acute medical ward (McGrath, Henderson & Holewa, 2006) and thus provides further evidence to affirm the insights gained from this new direction in understanding organizational ethical processes. As with the previous study, participants found the topic of defining the notion of ethics difficult to articulate and ethical decision-making at times a struggle.…”

“…The pilot work in relation to the program of research was conducted in the Hospital's Department of Acute Medicine. The initial work in Acute Medicine, which has now been completed and fully published (McGrath & Henderson, 2008;McGrath, 2006;McGrath, Henderson & Holewa, 2006;, provided strong insights on both health professionals' understanding of the notion of ethics and their approach to the process of ethical decisionmaking. In order to strengthen the foundation for the organizational model developed from the pilot work, an extension study has been conducted in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) ward at the Hospital.…”

Bioethics and Birth

“…However, the insights are important and indicative of a productive new direction in exploring the eth ical concerns about rising CS rate s. The strong recommendation from the research is that there needs to be a paradigmatic shift in the approach to exploring and documenting the ethical concerns about mode of birth delivery that incorporates a strong psycho-social , rather than purely clinical or abstract philosophical, approach. The recommendation resonates with the ongoing discussion in the bioethical literature that critiques the role of the philosophically-based, predominantly abstract, rationalistic mode of Principlism as the central mode of reasoning in bioethics (Alderson 1991;Bauman 1993;Clouser & Gert 1990;De Grazia 1992;McGrath 1998;McGrath et al 2006;Nicholson 1994;Tong 1996). Gilligan (1982), an early leader contributing to the new direction, has highlighted that the rationality of abstract philosophy leaves out important non-rational factors associated with the social context and relationships informing the ethical decision-making.…”

Differences that matter: developing critical insights into discourses of patient-centeredness

“…It has become a central value in healthcare that is believed to increase the social, psychological, cultural and ethical sensitivities of human encounters (Hughes et al 2008). For many healthcare practitioners, acting in a way that furthers the interests of patients and their families has thus become a guiding principle to address their ethical sense of the ‘good’ (McGrath et al 2006; Duggan et al 2006). …”