Ethical Challenges in Health Care: Developing Your Moral Compass

Designated a Doody's Core Title!

Lachman successfully addresses the most important topics in health care ethics in this volume...The 20 chapters are divided logically and proceed onward from those dealing with the evolution of the philosophical basis for personal and organizational ethics...This text would be a highly useful resource for both undergraduate- and graduate-level health care ethics courses...Summing Up: Recommended. --Choice

This book is written for 'all healthcare professionals,' from those providing healthcare services to those administrating healthcare organizations. [It] offers a detailed account of the concept of moral courage within the context of healthcare delivery?.[and] offers clarity and advice on numerous ethical problems. --Doody's

Stand up for what you believe in, even if it means standing alone. -Nelson Mandela

As a health professional or health care leader, have you ever:

Had to address the problem of uninsured patients in your hospital?
Had to deliver bad news to patients and families?
Wanted to report an unethical colleague?

If so, you need this book on your bookshelf. Health care managers and professionals face serious ethical dilemmas like these every day. This book provides the knowledge, insight, strategies, and encouragement necessary for developing moral courage in health care practice, even in the face of adversity.

Lachman outlines both personal and organizational strategies to help nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and health care leaders develop moral courage, and face difficult ethical challenges in health care practice and management head-on. Lachman presents numerous, real-life case examples to illustrate skills and opportunities for developing moral courage in the workplace. Also included are tips for executives on how to develop their ethical leadership skills.

Key Features:

Presents guidelines for developing moral courage for organization leaders as well as for individual practitioners
Discusses topics of critical concern to nurses and physicians, including patient autonomy, informed consent, and the importance of truth-telling
Highlights pressing issues for health care leaders, including the uninsured in America, managing disruptive practitioners, and promoting patient safety
Includes guidelines for standing up and speaking out against unethical practices
Reiterates Key Points to Remember at the end of each chapter

"Lachman successfully addresses the most important topics in health care ethics in this volume...The 20 chapters are divided logically and proceed onward from those dealing with the evolution of the philosophical basis for personal and organizational ethics...This text would be a highly useful resource for both undergraduate- and graduate-level health care ethics courses...Summing Up: Recommended."

--Choice

"This book is written for 'all healthcare professionals,' from those providing healthcare services to those administrating healthcare organizations. [It] offers a detailed account of the concept of moral courage within the context of healthcare delivery .[and] offers clarity and advice on numerous ethical problems."
--Doody's

"Stand up for what you believe in, even if it means standing alone."
-Nelson Mandela

As a health professional or health care leader, have you ever:

• Had to address the problem of uninsured patients in your hospital?

• Had to deliver bad news to patients and families?

• Wanted to report an unethical colleague?

If so, you need this book on your bookshelf. Health care managers and professionals face serious ethical dilemmas like these every day. This book provides the knowledge, insight, strategies, and encouragement necessary for developing moral courage in health care practice, even in the face of adversity.

Lachman outlines both personal and organizational strategies to help nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and health care leaders develop moral courage, and face difficult ethical challenges in health care practice and management head-on. Lachman presents numerous, real-life case examples to illustrate skills and opportunities for developing moral courage in the workplace. Also included are tips for executives on how to develop their ethical leadership skills.

Key Features:

• Presents guidelines for developing moral courage for organization leaders as well as for individual practitioners

• Discusses topics of critical concern to nurses and physicians, including patient autonomy, informed consent, and the importance of truth-telling

• Highlights pressing issues for health care leaders, including the uninsured in America, managing disruptive practitioners, and promoting patient safety

• Includes guidelines for "standing up and speaking out" against unethical practices

• Reiterates "Key Points to Remember" at the end of each chapter

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Adrienne Carpenter, BA(Saint Louis University)
Description:This book offers a detailed account of the concept of moral courage within the context of healthcare delivery. By referencing historical paragons and hypothetical case examples, the author analyzes the various dimensions of moral courage -- philosophical, psychological, political, and ethical.
Purpose:The goal is to help individuals and organizations overcome fear and exercise moral courage. While this is a noble goal, the diverse content at times distracts from the author's primary purpose.
Audience:The book is written for "all healthcare professionals," from those providing healthcare services to those administrating healthcare organizations. Accordingly, the first half of the book focuses on issues of moral courage in the context of interpersonal or workplace dilemmas, and the second half on moral courage in the context of organizational ethics.
Features:The way the book relates moral courage first to the personal, individual level and then to the organizational level is helpful for readers. The first chapter, however, attempts to present the "Virtue of Moral Courage: Socrates to Barack Obama" in under 10 pages. Rather than teasing out the philosophical nuances of moral courage, the author paraphrases ancient philosophical views on virtue, and then awkwardly jumps to a discussion of historical paragons of moral courage. The last chapter is superfluous, expressing the author's own "moral outrage" at the U.S. healthcare crisis. Instead of extending her analysis of moral courage into the political arena, the author's approach becomes editorial and muddles her goal of helping healthcare workers or administrators confront the ethical demands of their professions.
Assessment:Despite these shortcomings, this book still might serve as a good reference for a broad audience since it offers clarity and advice on numerous ethical problems. Throughout the book, numbered boxes highlight or summarize important data or concepts, and the end of each chapter lists key points to remember, making the book accessible and easy to navigate. The author excels in addressing psychological concerns of those faced with moral dilemmas, common ethical dilemmas that occur in healthcare situations, and concepts and strategies of organizational ethics. As such, readers are encouraged to reflect upon and develop personal or institutional moral compasses.

Vicki D. Lachman, PhD, MBE, APRN is a Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. In her role at the university, she primarily teaches ethics to masters and doctoral nursing students and acts as the track coordinator for the Innovation and Intra/Entrepreneurship in Advanced Nursing Practice MSN.
Dr. Lachman is a frequent presenter on ethical topics at national conferences. She writes the quarterly Ethics, Law and Policy column for MEDSURG Nursing: The Journal of Adult Health. She serves on two ethics committees and often advises executives on organizational ethics and front-line staff on end-of-life ethical issues. Her book, Applied Ethics in Nursing, was published by Springer Publishing in November 2005.