Should a ventilator be removed at a patient's request? An ethical analysis

Emotional Support for Health Care Professionals: A Therapeutic Role for the Hospital Ethics Committee

Hospital ethics committees (HECs) are typically charged with addressing ethical disputes, conflicts, and dilemmas that arise in the course of patient care. HECs are not widely viewed as having a therapeutic role for health care professionals who experience psychological distress or anticipatory grief in the course of discharging professional duties. A case is presented in which an ethics consultation was requested, chiefly, to secure emotional support for health care professionals who had been asked by a patient to discontinue life-sustaining treatments. As the case demonstrates, HECs may be called upon to provide emotional support and reassurance to health care professionals who willingly carry out psychologically difficult actions, even though these actions may be ethically uncontroversial. In providing this service, the HEC may not necessarily engage in its customary activity of deliberating an ethics issue and resolving a conflict but may still provide valuable assistance, as in the case presented.

Neuromuscular blockade administration to end suffering: an ethical dilemma

Critical care nurses face ethical issues every day in relation to end-of-life decisions. This article presents a case study involving the administration of a neuromuscular blocking agent prior to removing a patient from the respirator. The decision to use a paralyzing agent caused an ethical conflict between the nurse and physician. The article discusses ethical principles in relation to end-of-life decisions from the nurse, physician, and family's perspective. Whatever the belief, critical care nurses must consider the belief's of the patient and family while trying to maintain their own convictions.