Why Study Religion and Spirituality in Bioethics? Results of a Survey of Courses in Graduate Bioethics Programs in the USA.

The critical relevance and importance of considering religion and spirituality (R/S) in academic and public discourse on bioethical issues and in the illness experiences of patients and families is difficult to deny. Yet, little is known about the nature and scope of R/S education in graduate bioethics training. We therefore conducted a literature review and survey of bioethics programs in the USA and a content analysis of relevant syllabi of courses.

When Fulfilling a Professional Obligation Causes Moral Distress: A New Evaluative Approach.

Purpose: The term 'moral distress' was coined by Andrew Jameton to name the anguish that clinicians feel when they cannot pursue what they judge to be right because of institutional constraints. We argue that moral distress in critical care should also be addressed as a function of the constraints of ethics and propose an evaluative approach to the experience considering its implications for professional identity.

Method: We build on a selective review of the literature and analyze a paradigmatic example of moral distress, namely, clinicians who feel compelled to perform procedures on patients that seem futile.

Lack of Association Between Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA and Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy.

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a leading cause of death after heart transplantation (HT). We evaluated donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) as a noninvasive biomarker of CAV development after HT. The INSPIRE registry at the Intermountain Medical Center was queried for stored plasma samples from HT patients with and without CAV.

Clinician Moral Distress: Toward an Ethics of Agent-Regret.

Moral distress names a widely discussed and concerning clinician experience. Yet the precise nature of the distress and the appropriate practical response to it remain unclear. Clinicians speak of their moral distress in terms of guilt, regret, anger, or other distressing emotions, and they often invoke them interchangeably.

Professional Identity Formation in Medical Education: Some Virtue-Based Insights.

: In 2010, the Carnegie Foundation published a call to reorient medical education in terms of the formation of identities rather than mere competencies, and the medical education literature on professional identity formation (PIF) has since grown rapidly. As medical learners navigate a hectic clinical learning environment fraught with challenges to professionalism and ethics, they must simultaneously orient their skills, behaviors, and evolving sense of professional identity. The medical education literature on PIF describes the psychosocial dimensions of that identity formation well.

Physician Impairment and Rehabilitation: Reintegration Into Medical Practice While Ensuring Patient Safety: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians.

Physician impairment, the inability to carry out patient care responsibilities safely and effectively, is a problem of functioning. However, the presence or treatment of a potentially impairing illness or other condition does not necessarily imply impairment. This American College of Physicians position paper examines the professional duties and principles that should guide the response of colleagues and the profession to physician impairment.

Back to the future: The AMA and religion, 1961-1974.

U.S. medical scholarship and education regarding religion and spirituality has been growing rapidly in recent years.

Complexation of metal carbonyl units with [α-PW11O39]7- and [α2-P2W17O61]10-: insights into the chiral "twisted-sandwich" dimeric structures.

Several polyoxometalate-supported metal carbonyl complexes, K7Na3P2W23O80{Re(CO)3}2·38H2O (1), (C3H10N)8Na2P2W23O80{Re(CO)3}2·10H2O (1a) and (C3H10N)6KNa3P2W23O80{Mn(CO)3}2·7H2O (2), have been prepared from the dimerization of the monovacant Keggin [α-PW11O39](7-) with metal carbonyl complexes [M(CO)3](+) (M = Re, Mn) in acidic aqueous solutions. The resulting "twisted-sandwich" architectures are chiral, but their crystalline solids are racemic. A detailed investigation involving syntheses, crystal structures, and electrochemistry is presented.