Ethics, Medical
Ethics Committees
Committees established by professional societies, health facilities, or other institutions to consider decisions that have bioethical implications. The role of these committees may include consultation, education, mediation, and/or review of policies and practices. Committees that consider the ethical dimensions of patient care are ETHICS COMMITTEES, CLINICAL; committees established to protect the welfare of research subjects are ETHICS COMMITTEES, RESEARCH.
Ethics
The philosophy or code pertaining to what is ideal in human character and conduct. Also, the field of study dealing with the principles of morality.
Ethics, Research
The moral obligations governing the conduct of research. Used for discussions of research ethics as a general topic.
Ethics Consultation
Services provided by an individual ethicist (ETHICISTS) or an ethics team or committee (ETHICS COMMITTEES, CLINICAL) to address the ethical issues involved in a specific clinical case. The central purpose is to improve the process and outcomes of patients' care by helping to identify, analyze, and resolve ethical problems.
Ethics, Clinical
The identification, analysis, and resolution of moral problems that arise in the care of patients. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Ethics, Professional
Ethics, Nursing
The principles of proper professional conduct concerning the rights and duties of nurses themselves, their patients, and their fellow practitioners, as well as their actions in the care of patients and in relations with their families.
Ethics Committees, Research
Hospital or other institutional committees established to protect the welfare of research subjects. Federal regulations (the "Common Rule" (45 CFR 46)) mandate the use of these committees to monitor federally-funded biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects.
Ethics Committees, Clinical
Hospital or other institutional ethics committees established to consider the ethical dimensions of patient care. Distinguish from ETHICS COMMITTEES, RESEARCH, which are established to monitor the welfare of patients or healthy volunteers participating in research studies.
Principle-Based Ethics
An approach to ethics that focuses on theories of the importance of general principles such as respect for autonomy, beneficence/nonmaleficence, and justice.
Ethics, Dental
Ethical Theory
A philosophically coherent set of propositions (for example, utilitarianism) which attempts to provide general norms for the guidance and evaluation of moral conduct. (from Beauchamp and Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 4th ed)
Ethicists
Bioethical Issues
Clusters of topics that fall within the domain of BIOETHICS, the field of study concerned with value questions that arise in biomedicine and health care delivery.
Ethical Analysis
The use of systematic methods of ethical examination, such as CASUISTRY or ETHICAL THEORY, in reasoning about moral problems.
Bioethics
A branch of applied ethics that studies the value implications of practices and developments in life sciences, medicine, and health care.
Ethical Review
A formal process of examination of patient care or research proposals for conformity with ethical standards. The review is usually conducted by an organized clinical or research ethics committee (CLINICAL ETHICS COMMITTEES or RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEES), sometimes by a subset of such a committee, an ad hoc group, or an individual ethicist (ETHICISTS).
Moral Obligations
Duties that are based in ETHICS, rather than in law.
Professional Competence
Beneficence
The state or quality of being kind, charitable, or beneficial. (from American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed). The ethical principle of BENEFICENCE requires producing net benefit over harm. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Personal Autonomy
Virtues
Character traits that are considered to be morally praiseworthy. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Health Personnel
Informed Consent
Voluntary authorization, by a patient or research subject, with full comprehension of the risks involved, for diagnostic or investigative procedures, and for medical and surgical treatment.
Attitude of Health Personnel
Social Values
Social Responsibility
Patient Rights
Fundamental claims of patients, as expressed in statutes, declarations, or generally accepted moral principles. (Bioethics Thesaurus) The term is used for discussions of patient rights as a group of many rights, as in a hospital's posting of a list of patient rights.
Professional Autonomy
Professional Practice
Theology
Paternalism
Interference with the FREEDOM or PERSONAL AUTONOMY of another person, with justifications referring to the promotion of the person's good or the prevention of harm to the person. (from Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 1995); more generally, not allowing a person to make decisions on his or her own behalf.
Education, Professional
Philosophy, Medical
Medical philosophy is a branch of philosophy that deals with the concepts, values, and nature of medicine, including its ethical implications, epistemological foundations, and societal impact, aimed at informing and improving medical practice, research, and education.
Confidentiality
The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure.
Personhood
The state or condition of being a human individual accorded moral and/or legal rights. Criteria to be used to determine this status are subject to debate, and range from the requirement of simply being a human organism to such requirements as that the individual be self-aware and capable of rational thought and moral agency.
Social Justice
Questionnaires
Philosophy
Jurisprudence
The science or philosophy of law. Also, the application of the principles of law and justice to health and medicine.
Committee Membership
Human Rights
Patient Advocacy
Dissent and Disputes
Professional-Patient Relations
Interactions between health personnel and patients.
Ethical Relativism
Conflict of Interest
A situation in which an individual might benefit personally from official or professional actions. It includes a conflict between a person's private interests and official responsibilities in a position of trust. The term is not restricted to government officials. The concept refers both to actual conflict of interest and the appearance or perception of conflict.
United States
The term "United States" in a medical context often refers to the country where a patient or study participant resides, and is not a medical term per se, but relevant for epidemiological studies, healthcare policies, and understanding differences in disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and health outcomes across various geographic locations.
Great Britain
Value of Life
The intrinsic moral worth ascribed to a living being. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Resource Allocation
Research Subjects
Disclosure
Revealing of information, by oral or written communication.
Clinical Competence
Decision Making
Ethics, Pharmacy
Euthanasia, Passive
Burnout, Professional
Societies
Biomedical Research
Health Occupations
Professions or other business activities directed to the cure and prevention of disease. For occupations of medical personnel who are not physicians but who are working in the fields of medical technology, physical therapy, etc., ALLIED HEALTH OCCUPATIONS is available.
Euthanasia
The act or practice of killing or allowing death from natural causes, for reasons of mercy, i.e., in order to release a person from incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. (from Beauchamp and Walters, Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 5th ed)
Interdisciplinary Communication
Communication, in the sense of cross-fertilization of ideas, involving two or more academic disciplines (such as the disciplines that comprise the cross-disciplinary field of bioethics, including the health and biological sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences and law). Also includes problems in communication stemming from differences in patterns of language usage in different academic or medical disciplines.
Qualitative Research
Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)
Nurses
Withholding Treatment
Withholding or withdrawal of a particular treatment or treatments, often (but not necessarily) life-prolonging treatment, from a patient or from a research subject as part of a research protocol. The concept is differentiated from REFUSAL TO TREAT, where the emphasis is on the health professional's or health facility's refusal to treat a patient or group of patients when the patient or the patient's representative requests treatment. Withholding of life-prolonging treatment is usually indexed only with EUTHANASIA, PASSIVE, unless the distinction between withholding and withdrawing treatment, or the issue of withholding palliative rather than curative treatment, is discussed.
Education, Continuing
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Education, Nursing
Use for general articles concerning nursing education.
Metaphysics
The branch of philosophy that treats of first principles, including ontology (the nature of existence or being) and cosmology (the origin and structure of the universe). (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)
Interviews as Topic
Whistleblowing
The reporting of observed or suspected PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT or incompetence to appropriate authorities or to the public.
Communication
Empirical Research
Allied Health Personnel
Health care workers specially trained and licensed to assist and support the work of health professionals. Often used synonymously with paramedical personnel, the term generally refers to all health care workers who perform tasks which must otherwise be performed by a physician or other health professional.
Research Personnel
Those individuals engaged in research.
Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation
Human experimentation that is not intended to benefit the subjects on whom it is performed. Phase I drug studies (CLINICAL TRIALS, PHASE I AS TOPIC) and research involving healthy volunteers are examples of nontherapeutic human experimentation.
Conscience
Professional Impairment
Guidelines as Topic
A systematic statement of policy rules or principles. Guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by convening expert panels. The text may be cursive or in outline form but is generally a comprehensive guide to problems and approaches in any field of activity. For guidelines in the field of health care and clinical medicine, PRACTICE GUIDELINES AS TOPIC is available.
Helsinki Declaration
An international agreement of the World Medical Association which offers guidelines for conducting experiments using human subjects. It was adopted in 1962 and revised by the 18th World Medical Assembly at Helsinki, Finland in 1964. Subsequent revisions were made in 1975, 1983, 1989, and 1996. (From Encyclopedia of Bioethics, rev ed, 1995)
Focus Groups
A method of data collection and a QUALITATIVE RESEARCH tool in which a small group of individuals are brought together and allowed to interact in a discussion of their opinions about topics, issues, or questions.
Scientific Misconduct
Nursing
The field of nursing care concerned with the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health.
Minors
A person who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded.
Cultural Diversity
Societies, Medical
Societies whose membership is limited to physicians.
Internationality
Lawyers
Education, Medical, Continuing
Educational programs designed to inform physicians of recent advances in their field.
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
The period of medical education in a medical school. In the United States it follows the baccalaureate degree and precedes the granting of the M.D.
Canada
Education, Graduate
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Professional Practice Location
Geographic area in which a professional person practices; includes primarily physicians and dentists.
Soccer
Researcher-Subject Relations
Codes of Ethics
Systematic statements of principles or rules of appropriate professional conduct, usually established by professional societies.
Patient Care Team
Care of patients by a multidisciplinary team usually organized under the leadership of a physician; each member of the team has specific responsibilities and the whole team contributes to the care of the patient.
Humanism
An ethical system which emphasizes human values and the personal worth of each individual, as well as concern for the dignity and freedom of humankind.
Torture
The intentional infliction of physical or mental suffering upon an individual or individuals, including the torture of animals.
Public Health
Therapeutic Human Experimentation
Students, Medical
Organizational Policy
A course or method of action selected, usually by an organization, institution, university, society, etc., from among alternatives to guide and determine present and future decisions and positions on matters of public interest or social concern. It does not include internal policy relating to organization and administration within the corporate body, for which ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION is available.
Civil Rights
Legal guarantee protecting the individual from attack on personal liberties, right to fair trial, right to vote, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. (from http://www.usccr.gov/ accessed 1/31/2003)
Research
Critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or the practical application of such new or revised conclusions, theories, or laws. (Webster, 3d ed)
Child Advocacy
Medical Futility
The absence of a useful purpose or useful result in a diagnostic procedure or therapeutic intervention. The situation of a patient whose condition will not be improved by treatment or instances in which treatment preserves permanent unconsciousness or cannot end dependence on intensive medical care. (From Ann Intern Med 1990 Jun 15;112(12):949)
Cooperative Behavior
Judaism
Staff Development
Jehovah's Witnesses
Members of a religious denomination founded in the United States during the late 19th century in which active evangelism is practiced, the imminent approach of the millennium is preached, and war and organized government authority in matters of conscience are strongly opposed (from American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed). Jehovah's Witnesses generally refuse blood transfusions and other blood-based treatments based on religious belief.
Needs Assessment
Euthanasia, Active
The act or practice of killing for reasons of mercy, i.e., in order to release a person or animal from incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. (from Beauchamp and Walters, Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 5th ed)
Education, Public Health Professional
Education and training in PUBLIC HEALTH for the practice of the profession.
Third-Party Consent
Informed consent given by someone other than the patient or research subject.
Liability, Legal
Gift Giving
The bestowing of tangible or intangible benefits, voluntarily and usually without expectation of anything in return. However, gift giving may be motivated by feelings of ALTRUISM or gratitude, by a sense of obligation, or by the hope of receiving something in return.
Truth Disclosure
Truthful revelation of information, specifically when the information disclosed is likely to be psychologically painful ("bad news") to the recipient (e.g., revelation to a patient or a patient's family of the patient's DIAGNOSIS or PROGNOSIS) or embarrassing to the teller (e.g., revelation of medical errors).
Narration
Altruism
Physical Therapy Specialty
Human Characteristics
International Cooperation
Educational Measurement
Role
Program Development
The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).
Double Effect Principle
Guideline for determining when it is morally permissible to perform an action to pursue a good end with knowledge that the action will also bring about bad results. It generally states that, in cases where a contemplated action has such double effect, the action is permissible only if: it is not wrong in itself; the bad result is not intended; the good result is not a direct causal result of the bad result; and the good result is "proportionate to" the bad result. (from Solomon, "Double Effect," in Becker, The Encyclopedia of Ethics, 1992)
Cross-Sectional Studies
Models, Educational
Refusal to Treat
Confucianism
A school of thought and set of moral, ethical, and political teachings usually considered to be founded by Confucius in 6th-5th century B.C. China. (from Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 1995)
Program Evaluation
Mental Competency
Primary Health Care
Quality of Health Care
Public Opinion
The attitude of a significant portion of a population toward any given proposition, based upon a measurable amount of factual evidence, and involving some degree of reflection, analysis, and reasoning.
Certification
Compliance with a set of standards defined by non-governmental organizations. Certification is applied for by individuals on a voluntary basis and represents a professional status when achieved, e.g., certification for a medical specialty.
Research Design
Psychiatry
The medical science that deals with the origin, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.
Attitude
Life Support Care
Evidence-Based Medicine
An approach of practicing medicine with the goal to improve and evaluate patient care. It requires the judicious integration of best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. This method is to help physicians make proper diagnosis, devise best testing plan, choose best treatment and methods of disease prevention, as well as develop guidelines for large groups of patients with the same disease. (from JAMA 296 (9), 2006)
Students, Health Occupations
Individuals enrolled in a school or formal educational program in the health occupations.
Culture
A collective expression for all behavior patterns acquired and socially transmitted through symbols. Culture includes customs, traditions, and language.
Sociology
A social science dealing with group relationships, patterns of collective behavior, and social organization.
Rural Health Services
Health Physics
The science concerned with problems of radiation protection relevant to reducing or preventing radiation exposure, and the effects of ionizing radiation on humans and their environment.
Internet
A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.
Family Practice
A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Directions or principles presenting current or future rules of policy for assisting health care practitioners in patient care decisions regarding diagnosis, therapy, or related clinical circumstances. The guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. The guidelines form a basis for the evaluation of all aspects of health care and delivery.
Tissue and Organ Procurement
The administrative procedures involved with acquiring TISSUES or organs for TRANSPLANTATION through various programs, systems, or organizations. These procedures include obtaining consent from TISSUE DONORS and arranging for transportation of donated tissues and organs, after TISSUE HARVESTING, to HOSPITALS for processing and transplantation.
Editorial Policies
Leadership
Patient Participation
Parental Consent
Patient Education as Topic
The teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs.
Conflict (Psychology)
The internal individual struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, or external and internal demands. In group interactions, competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons). (from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed)