The number of both print and electronic open access (OA) journals has increased dramatically. Although electronic availability of information on the Internet may offer greater potential for information sharing, it also gives rise to "predatory" journals and deceptive publishers. In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe both the opportunities and potential perils that come with OA publications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthical dilemmas can create moral distress in even the most experienced emergency physicians (EPs). Following reasonable and justified approaches can help alleviate such distress. The purpose of this article is to guide EPs providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) direction to navigate through common ethical issues confronted in the prehospital delivery of care, including protecting privacy and confidentiality, decision-making capacity and refusal of treatment, withholding of treatment, and termination of resuscitation (TOR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmergency Medical Services (EMS) providers face many ethical issues while providing prehospital care to children and adults. Although provider judgment plays a large role in the resolution of conflicts at the scene, it is important to establish protocols and policies, when possible, to address these high-risk and complex situations. This article describes some of the common situations with ethical underpinnings encountered by EMS personnel and managers including denying or delaying transport of patients with non-emergency conditions, use of lights and sirens for patient transport, determination of medical futility in the field, termination of resuscitation, restriction of EMS provider duty hours to prevent fatigue, substance abuse by EMS providers, disaster triage and difficulty in switching from individual care to mass-casualty care, and the challenges of child maltreatment recognition and reporting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn October 2009, the board of directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) approved a major revision to ACEP's "Gifts to Emergency Physicians from Industry" policy. The revised policy is a response to increasing debate and calls for restriction of the long-standing biomedical industry practice of giving promotional gifts to individual physicians. This article outlines the history of professional attention to gift giving and reviews recent contributions to the ongoing debate over its justifiability, including professional association recommendations for limitation or prohibition of the practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost disaster plans depend on using emergency physicians, nurses, emergency department support staff, and out-of-hospital personnel to maintain the health care system's front line during crises that involve personal risk to themselves or their families. Planners automatically assume that emergency health care workers will respond. However, we need to ask: Should they, and will they, work rather than flee? The answer involves basic moral and personal issues.
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