The Ethical Concept of “Best Interest”

Baumrucker, Steven J.; Sheldon, Joanne E.; Stolick, Matt; Morris, Gerald M.; VandeKieft, Gregg; Harrington, Dianne

doi:10.1177/1049909107313130

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…But parents' decision-making authority is predicated on their acting in the best interests of the child, particularly for major health decisions. 10 Accordingly, to engage in shared decision making, Joan's clinical team has a complex set of responsibilities: (1) to truly understand and appreciate Ms K's perspective; (2) to engage Ms K respectfully while assessing her and Joan's specific needs and preferences; (3) to share the information needed to make patient-centered decisions, clearly explaining what is known, what is uncertain, and what are the risks, benefits, and likely consequences of different plans of treatment; and (4) to share in deliberations with Ms K about which option is best for Joan. Here, we discuss responsibilities 1, 2, and 4.…”

Section: How Should Clinicians Address a False Belief?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Should Clinicians Address a Parent's False Belief Generated by Denial or Grief About How to Care Well for a Child?

Krawiec

Levi

2018

AMA Journal of Ethics

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Parents of children with complex health needs are often both vigilant and very knowledgeable about their child's disease state. That said, sometimes parents' hyperfocus, combined with their strong emotional attachment, can result in both false beliefs regarding their child's capacities and disagreements with clinicians about what is and is not clinically indicated. We examine ethical and professional responsibilities clinicians should consider when working with parents who hold false beliefs about their child with complex health needs. Case Joan K is a 10-year-old with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which entails recurrent seizures, severe cognitive and developmental deficits, and often progressive difficulties with swallowing. 1 Joan's mother, Ms K, is a single parent and has always been her daughter's primary caregiver. Despite Joan's developmental and motor deficits, she has been able to eat and maintain normal height and weight-which her mother believes is due to herbal supplements she includes in Joan's diet. For the third time in 6 months, however, Joan has been diagnosed with pneumonia and is now hospitalized for respiratory distress. It is apparent to the clinical team that Ms K, a licensed nurse practitioner, is devoted to meeting her daughter's needs, but also that Ms K has a view of her daughter that is at odds with Joan's actual abilities. The disconnect comes to a head when a nurse comes to Joan's bedside to administer intravenous antiseizure medication. Ms K objects, stating, "No, Joan takes this as a paste. I crush the pills, mix them with water, and spoon feed her." When the nurse responds, "I can't do that if she's having difficulty swallowing," Ms K states matter-of-factly that Joan leads a normal life and has no trouble swallowing. "I have been doing this for years, and there's no reason to change now." The young attending physician, Dr D, overhears this exchange and intervenes. "Ms K, as I think you know, difficulty swallowing is a sign of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome progression 2 and could be the underlying reason for her recurrent pneumonia. We can do a swallow

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Section: How Should Clinicians Address a False Belief?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Should Clinicians Address a Parent's False Belief Generated by Denial or Grief About How to Care Well for a Child?

Krawiec

Levi

2018

AMA Journal of Ethics

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“…Modern thought on beneficence which embraces humanism emphasises that all persons have immutable rights to life and liberty that must be respected and nurtured 13 , 15 , 16 . Practitioners must act in the best interest of the patient and refrain from harming him 17 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical ethics and compliance amongst physician groups: a self-assessed survey in a hospital in Southeast Nigeria

Godfrey Ochonma,

Olive Chjioke,

Agorye Ingwu

et al. 2023

Afr H. Sci.

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Background: Being a doctor remains a moral enterprise as he is expected to make some medical decisions based on ethical principles during encounter with patients. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge and application of medical ethical principles amongst physician groups in a Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional self-assessed study conducted amongst medical doctors in five specialty groups in a teaching hospital in Enugu, Nigeria.Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the items and determine whether significant differences on knowledge and application of medical ethics existed amongst the physician groups in the treatment of patients. Findings: Observance and compliance with medical ethical conduct was highest among doctors that were aged 55 years and above. In sex, male doctors had higher ethical conduct compliance than female doctors. Comparing the doctors by rank, medical officers, consultants and senior registrars respectively had the highest ethical conduct. Conclusions: Knowledge and practice of medical ethics were mostly deficient among younger Nigerian and female doctors. Remedying the situation will require better curricula both at the undergraduate and post-graduate medical school programmes for doctor trainees. Requiring certification in bioethics for license renewal will also help in resolving and improving the knowledge gap. Keywords: Professional; ethical; conduct; doctors; patients; survey; Nigeria; hospital.

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“…Where patients are unable to participate in decision making either directly or through advance care plans, a common approach to resolving these disagreements is to appeal to a patient's "best interests" [7][8][9][10]. Generally, best interests take into account both patient's considerations (ie, values and beliefs), and medical considerations (ie, which treatments are indicated and how likely they are to provide benefit, etc).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best interests at end of life: an updated review of decisions made by the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario

Sibbald

Chidwick

2013

Journal of Critical Care

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The Ethical Concept of “Best Interest”

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

How Should Clinicians Address a Parent's False Belief Generated by Denial or Grief About How to Care Well for a Child?

How Should Clinicians Address a Parent's False Belief Generated by Denial or Grief About How to Care Well for a Child?

Medical ethics and compliance amongst physician groups: a self-assessed survey in a hospital in Southeast Nigeria

Best interests at end of life: an updated review of decisions made by the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario

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