Ethics Consultation: A Practical Guide: A Practical Guide

By John La Puma

This is a book about clinical ethics consultation by two practitioners who together have done more than 700 consultations. There is not another authoritative book like it. Practical rather than theoretical in scope, the book addresses strategies for conducting consultations, relating to patients at the bedside, investigating the ethical issues, making recommendations, following up on cases, and keeping records. Chapters include issues such as the need for training, the skills needed, the problem of certification, how to set up a practice, financial compensation and billing, and the relation of the consultant to committees, particularly ethics committees. The authors include reflections about learning clinical ethics and education of committees, hospital staff, and the general public about issues that arise. The purpose is to help ethics consultants improve their conscious assessment of their work, both how they go about it and its legitimacy for patients, health care providers, and hospitals. The orientation is primarily on clinical care of patients, because the goal of such consultations is always aimed to improve patient care. Other ethics consultants might work to develop institutional policies. Although that is touched on in the book, it is not the primary goal of the authors. The book is aimed at the practitioner in bioethics in a clinical setting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0867207973
• ISBN13: 9780867207972
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Still the Best How-To-Do-It Bioethics Consultation Book

La Puma and Schiedermayer distill their case experience of more than 700 individual consults--both one-on-one and in committee--into a step-by-step practical approach to resolving ethical dilemmas at the patient's side, or at least, with the clinicians and significant others. I learned a lot from this book--how to speak with patients in a caring way without creating or tapping into adversity; how to hold family meetings to gather information, not just achieve consensus; what to look for in medical records and how to write progress notes; and maybe most of all, what to do in the culture of the hospital and of medicine to work within it, to help achieve patient goals. They spend much of the book describing end of life dilemmas, but give detailed case reports and pictures (do you know any other ethics book with pictures?!) about some of their most difficult cases, from beginning to end. Informed consent, advance directives, conflicts of interest (lots of conflict of interest!), DNR orders, even transplantation...most of which is every day stuff for me.These guys are experts, and this guide is practical and amazing--well worth the money, and an excellent teaching manual. First rate.