Residents??? Access to Ethics Consultations: Knowledge, Use, and Perceptions

Moral distress among Norwegian doctors

“…A more intolerant culture in this respect may suppress the open and systematic discussion of ethical dilemmas both before an action is taken and retrospectively, when a controversial decision has been made. Doctors may refrain from taking difficult ethical cases to ethics consultation services because of fear of opposition, or even hostility, from colleagues 12. Lack of openness towards criticism and lack of willingness to discuss difficult matters clearly may attenuate support in ethical dilemmas, and may thus increase moral distress.…”

Ethics rounds: affecting ethics quality at all organisational levels

“…However, more than 40% of the participants expressed reservations about CES in general or the quality of the service in their institution 10. Another study among the residents of a large academic teaching hospital revealed that 30% of the responding residents either were not aware of the CES services in their institution or had negative perceptions of ethics consultations 11. In this study, 89% of respondents never requested an ethics consultation.…”

Rounding: How Everyday Ethics can Invigorate a Hospital’s Ethics Committee

“…The literature has consistently demonstrated that, in general, physicians do not like calling ethics committee consultations (Davies and Hudson, 1999;DuVal et al, 2001;Gacki-Smith and Gordon, 2005). We believe, of the many reasons given for this disinclination, there is one that stands out.…”