Doing Harm

2021 ◽  
pp. 212-231
Author(s):  
Jeanne Flavin ◽  
Lynn M. Paltrow
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
New Mothers ◽  
Confidential Information ◽  
Patient Confidentiality ◽  
Hospital Social Workers ◽  
Medical Health ◽  
Private Matter

Under the guise of “protecting the unborn,” anti-abortion and related measures such as feticide laws are being used as the basis for arresting pregnant women and new mothers. It is often the case that the initial disclosure of information that led to the involvement of criminal law, child welfare, or other state authorities has been made by healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and hospital social workers. Pregnant patients—like other patients—should expect that their medical health is a private matter and that healthcare provider–patient confidentiality will be respected. Such disclosures have legal, social, and public health consequences and frequently lead to interventions that are punitive and counterproductive, not protective. This chapter describes the ethical obligations of healthcare professionals, including their duty to advocate for the protection of confidential information and to work to change unjust practices, policies, and laws.

scholarly journals What is common and what is different: recommendations from European scientific societies for triage in the first outbreak of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106969
Author(s):  
Joana Teles Sarmento ◽  
Cristina Lírio Pedrosa ◽  
Ana Sofia Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Fair Allocation ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Scientific Societies ◽  
Decision Tools ◽  
Life Saving

A public health emergency, as the COVID-19 pandemic, may lead to shortages of potentially life-saving treatments. In this situation, it is necessary, justifiable and proportionate to have decision tools in place to enable healthcare professionals to triage and prioritise access to those resources. An ethically sound framework should consider the principles of beneficence and fair allocation. Scientific Societies across Europe were concerned with this problem early in the pandemic and published guidelines to support their professionals and institutions. This article aims to compare triage policies from medical bodies across Europe, to characterise the process of triage and the ethical values, principles and theories that were proposed in different countries during the first outbreak of COVID-19.

Culture and Attitudes Towards Euthanasia: An Integrative Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 003022282098465
Author(s):  
Anjana A. Karumathil ◽  
Ritu Tripathi
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
End Of Life Decisions ◽  
European North ◽  
Similarities And Differences

We examine and integrate last two decades of research on euthanasia from a cultural perspective. After an exhaustive search from Scopus and Web of Science, 40 studies matching our criteria are included in the review. We qualitatively summarize the literature country-wise and use text map of co-occurring terms in the titles, keywords, and abstracts of these articles to determine the similarities and differences among sub-themes in continental clusters. Research done in Asian, European, North American, and multi-cultural studies suggests that attributes unique to each culture are instrumental in shaping public attitudes towards euthanasia. We also find that some cultures, despite the prevalence of euthanasia, are underrepresented in empirical research. This review of literature on the cultural nuances in end-of-life decisions such as euthanasia is pertinent to social scientists, healthcare professionals and social workers in any given time, but more so during such critical events as worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Obstetric Violence in Spain (Part III): Healthcare Professionals, Times and Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3359
Author(s):  
Desirée Mena-Tudela ◽  
Susana Iglesias-Casás ◽  
Víctor Manuel González-Chordá ◽  
María Jesús Valero-Chillerón ◽  
Laura Andreu-Pejó ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Obstetric Violence

Background: Obstetric violence is a worldwide public health problem, which seems greater in Spain. As no studies were found that identify the most representative healthcare professionals, times, and areas involved in obstetric violence, the objective of this work was to study at what time of maternity, with which professionals, and in what areas women identified obstetric violence. Methods: This descriptive, retrospective, and cross-sectional study was performed from January 2018 to June 2019. The main variables were the area (hospital, primary care, both), the time (pregnancy, birth, puerperium), and the professionals attending to women. Results: Our sample comprised 17,541 participants. The area identified with the most obstetric violence for the different studied variables was hospitals. Women identified more obstetric violence at time of birth. Findings such as lack of information and informed consent (74.2%), and criticism of infantile behavior and treatment (87.6%), stood out. The main identified healthcare professionals were midwives and gynecologists, and “other” professionals repeatedly appeared. Conclusions: Having identified the professionals, times, and areas of most obstetric violence in Spain, it seems necessary to reflect on not only the Spanish National Health System’s structure and management but also on healthcare professionals’ training.

Hospital Social Workers and Self-Help Groups

1985 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Beck Black ◽  
Diane Drachman
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Hospital Social Workers ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Self Help Groups

scholarly journals Hospital Social Workers in the US

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Helena Lustová
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Hospital Social Workers ◽  
The Us

scholarly journals Hospitals and cultural diversity: social worker experiences and reflections

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris Anne Testa
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Culturally Sensitive ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
Hospital Social Workers ◽  
Culturally Sensitive Practice

INTRODUCTION: Social work accrediting bodies mandate that workers analyse ways in which cultural values and structural forces shape client experiences and opportunities and that workers deconstruct mechanisms of exclusion and asymmetrical power relationships. This article reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study of frontline hospital social workers’ experiences and understanding of their mandate for culturally sensitive practice.METHODS: The study involved one-hour, semi-structured interviews with 10 frontline hospital social workers. The interviews sought to understand how frontline workers and their organisations understood sensitive practice. Drawing on their own social cultural biographies, workers described organisational policy and practices that supported (or not) culturally sensitive practice. Narrative analysis was used to extract themes.FINDINGS: Data indicate that frontline hospital social workers demonstrated their professional mandate for culturally sensitive practice. Workers were firm in their view that working with the culturally other requires humility as well as a preparedness to value and engage the multiple cultural meanings that evolve in the patient–worker encounter.CONCLUSION: The findings highlight that mandating cultural sensitivity does not necessarily result in such practice. Cultural sensitivity requires an understanding of how cultural and social location may be implicated in sustaining the dominant cultural narrative and signals the need for workers, systems and organisations to facilitate appropriate learning experiences to explore culturally sensitive practice.   

Cauzele justificative și transmiterea unor boli infectocontagioase

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2020) ◽  
pp. 319-347
Author(s):  
Dorel HERINEAN ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Times ◽  
Near Future

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article analyses some possibilities provided by the law in order to protect the public health or the health of an individual, respectively the commission of certain actions sanctioned by the criminal law under the incidence of the justification causes, with the consequence of their lack of criminal character. Whether it is the means of retaliation or rescue that can be used by a person facing the transmission of infectious diseases, the actions necessary to prevent or combat the pandemic that the law authorizes or the availability or not of a person's health as a social value, the situations that may appear in the near future in the legal practice have not been previously studied by the doctrine and have an element of novelty. Thus, the article makes, based on some theoretical exercises, a punctual analysis of some problems of application and interpretation that could intervene and for which are offered, most of the times, generic, principled landmarks, but also some concrete solutions on the incidence or exclusion from the application of the justification causes.

20. EU health law

2020 ◽  
pp. 643-672
Author(s):  
Tamara K Hervey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Human Tissue ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Patient Mobility ◽  
The Law

This chapter examines EU law on health. Specifically, it discusses the law governing patient mobility; healthcare professionals; healthcare institutions; medical devices and pharmaceuticals; blood, organs, and human tissue; and public health.

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