Launching Diversity-Intelligent Strategies in Organizations

The purpose of this chapter is to provide diversity intelligent strategies that can be used by leaders to eliminate ineffective diversity efforts, enhance effective diversity efforts, and provide new diversity intelligent strategies in organizations. Integrating DQ alongside emotional, cultural, and intellectual intelligences in the workplace can strengthen the effectiveness of leaders' people management efforts. Most employees enter organizations with the expectation of having positive experiences with their leaders and achieving success towards their career goals. Yet, many are marginalized or limited in their opportunities for advancement for reasons of which they have no control. The eradication of ineffective training and development of diversity must occur for effective change to occur. Credible DQ, ethical and legal issues, and workforce inter-personnel diversity training programs must be launched by HRD professionals and organization leaders so that leaders are developed to provide employees with fair and just treatment and successful career development will ensue.

Independent and Supplementary Prescribing

Written by a group of multi-professional authors, this fully updated third edition builds on the success of this classic text. The book explores a number of key areas for prescribers, including prescribing within a multidisciplinary team context, consultation skills, ethical and legal issues surrounding prescribing, the psychology and sociology of prescribing, and applied pharmacology. Among the other topics featured are monitoring skills, medicines concordance, evidence based prescribing, prescribing within a public health perspective, calculation skills, prescribing in dermatology, and minimizing the risk of prescribing errors. Each chapter has been revised and additional chapters on antimicrobial prescribing, education and training to become a prescriber, and a new section on renal impairment have been added. This book is an essential resource for both new and experienced prescribers and anyone undertaking the non-medical prescribing (NMP) programme including nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals and optometrists.

(DON’T) HOLD YOUR BREATH: THE SOUTH AFRICAN COVID-19 VACCINE APPROVAL PROCESS AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

The world seemed to sigh in relief in early November 2020, when it was announced that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech showed itself to be 90 per cent effective in early data analysis. This announcement was followed by one from Moderna Inc that its vaccine in development was showing to be almost 95 per cent effective. Soon after, numerous other companies announced the efficacy of their respective vaccines and roll-out plans and policies were made and even implemented.However, this sigh of relief was perhaps premature. Although these announcements were good news on the face of it, they also brought to light some concerns. The fast pace at which the vaccines were developed and made available for human use raises various ethical and legal issues as well as questions related to the safety and efficacy thereof. The correct dosage and timing of vaccination is still not fixed, vaccine expiration periods and the discovery of new variants of the Covid-19 virus has further added to these concerns. In addition, uncertainty exists regarding the approval process that should be followed for these vaccines. This last concern forms the focus of this note.

Ethical and Legal Challenges of Telemedicine in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and objective: Telemedicine or telehealth services has been increasingly practiced in the recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine turned into and indispensable service in order to avoid contagion between healthcare professionals and patients, involving a growing number of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, at present, several ethical and legal issues related to the practice of these services still remain unsolved and need adequate regulation. This narrative review will give a synthesis of the main ethical and legal issues of telemedicine practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods: A literature search was performed on PubMed using MeSH terms: Telemedicine (which includes Mobile Health or Health, Mobile, mHealth, Telehealth, and eHealth), Ethics, Legislation/Jurisprudence, and COVID-19. These terms were combined into a search string to better identify relevant articles published in the English language from March 2019 to September 2021. Results: Overall, 24 out of the initial 85 articles were considered eligible for this review. Legal and ethical issues concerned important aspects such as: informed consent (information about the risks and benefits of remote therapy) and autonomy (87%), patient privacy (78%) and confidentiality (57%), data protection and security (74%), malpractice and professional liability/integrity (70%), equity of access (30%), quality of care (30%), the professional–patient relationship (22%), and the principle of beneficence or being disposed to act for the benefit of others (13%). Conclusions: The ethical and legal issues related to the practice of telehealth or telemedicine services still need standard and specific rules of application in order to guarantee equitable access, quality of care, sustainable costs, professional liability, respect of patient privacy, data protection, and confidentiality. At present, telemedicine services could be only used as complementary or supplementary tools to the traditional healthcare services. Some indications for medical providers are suggested.

The ethical and medico-legal challenges of telemedicine in the coronavirus disease 2019 era: A comparison between Egypt and India

Background In the coronavirus disease 2019 era, doctors have tried to decrease hospital visits and admissions. To this end, telemedicine was implemented in a non-systematic manner according. The objective of this study was to assess the current knowledge and attitudes of physicians in Alexandria, Egypt, and Punjab, India, toward telemedicine and its ethical and medico-legal issues. Method A cross-sectional study was implemented using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire carried out over two months (July and August 2020). A four-point Likert scale was used to collect data about background knowledge, training in telemedicine and ethical and medico-legal issues in telemedicine practice. Results The questionnaire was completed by 175 Egyptian and 51 Indian physicians from different specialties. A significantly higher percentage of Indian physicians practiced telemedicine than Egyptian physicians during the coronavirus disease 2019 era. Although most physicians had no specific training or licensing to practice telemedicine, most of them practiced telemedicine through their social media accounts. Ethical violations involving waiving patient consent were detected. Significant ethical violations to doctors, for example, blackmail, defamation, hate speech, accusations in a court and violations of privacy, were observed. Indian physicians (39.2%) and Egyptian physicians (24%) thought the penalties should be lower in telemedicine than in traditional practice. Finally, most participants would like to continue using telemedicine after the coronavirus disease 2019 era but with improvements. Conclusions Coronavirus disease 2019 changed the acceptance of telemedicine by physicians. Many ethical and legal issues need to be addressed and clarified using formal training before implementation and standardization of telemedicine services.

Unbound: Ethics, Law, Sustainability, and the New Space Race

We are witnessing a new space race. A half century after the last Moon landing, and after a decade during which the United States could not launch its own astronauts to Earth orbit, there is new energy in the space activity. China has huge ambitions to rival or eclipse America as the major space power, and other countries are developing space programs. However, perhaps the greatest excitement attaches to the entrepreneurs who are trying to create a new business model for space travel based initially on tourism, and eventually, on colonizing the Moon and Mars and harvesting resources from asteroids. This paper presents a snapshot of the new space race and the rich men behind it, and it looks at some of the ethical and legal issues raised by this activity. The methodology is to consider the stated ambitions of the men leading private space companies, compare and contrast the space endeavor with earlier episodes of exploration and transportation innovation, review the regulatory environment for outer space, and consider two divergent scenarios for the future. Opinions are divided on whether commercial space flight is an expensive indulgence or potentially a way to find sustainability solutions for our life on Earth. It is concluded that the new space race can be characterized as unbounded: in ambition, in terms of laws and regulations, and in terms of ethical constraints on the activity.

Agency, Negligence and Responsibility

This collection of essays represents a ground-breaking collaboration between moral philosophers, action theorists, lawyers and legal theorists to set a fresh research agenda on agency and responsibility in negligence. The complex phenomenon of responsibility in negligence is analysed from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives, shedding light on key ethical and legal issues related to agency and negligence to impact substantive law and policy-making in different jurisdictions. The volume introduces new debates and questions old assumptions, inviting the reader to rethink substantive law and practical ethical reflection.

COERCIVE MEASURESIN PANDEMIC PSYCHIATRIC CARE — RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Coercion raises serious ethical and legal issues in psychiatric care. Coercive medical measures are applied in psychiatric institutions for protective purposes. Alcoholism is a social and medical problem because it especially affects the behavior of the individual. Alcohol consumption can catalyze exacerbations of mental illness and predispose to behaviors with an increased risk of violence. Aim: The purpose of this study is to illustrate medical and legal issues related to coercive measures in emergency psychiatric care during the pandemic. Methods: The study is retrospective, and the data were taken from the observation sheets of patients in the period between March 1, 2020–March 31, 2021, in acute section II in the Institute of Psychiatry "Socola" Iasi. Results: Of those who required coercive measures during hospitalization, most were restraint for symptoms such as: self-aggression and aggression towards others. Mechanical restraint measures were also necessary in cases with hallucinatory-delusional symptoms, associated with self-aggression and aggression towards others. The share of hospitalized patients for alcohol abuse, who required coercive measures, was significantly higher during the pandemic. Conclusion: Manifestations of violence among patients with major mental disorders are rare. Mechanical restraint was necessary especially in those who had self-aggression and aggression towards others, symptoms secondary to alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption amplifies the psychological imbalance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.