Screening situations for risk of ethical conflicts: a pilot study.

Background: Ethical conflicts, often leading to poor teamwork and moral distress, are very challenging to patients, patients' families, and health care providers. A proactive approach to ethical conflicts may improve patient care outcomes.

Objectives: To examine acceptability and feasibility of an ethics screening and early intervention tool for use by nurses caring for critically ill patients.

A comparison of expectations and impressions of ethical characteristics of dentists: results of a community primary care survey.

Background: To better define potential challenges in dental professional ethics, the authors gathered data regarding patients' characterizations of an ideal dentist and compared them with their impressions of dentists in general.

Methods: The authors invited 500 consecutively seen primary care patients at an academic medical center to participate in the study. Participants completed a 32-item survey assessing key domains of ethical characteristics of health care professionals: trustworthiness, honesty, beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, empathy, compassion, patience, courage, humility and dedication.

Barriers to innovation: nurses' risk appraisal in using a new ethics screening and early intervention tool.

We developed and assessed feasibility of an Ethics Screening and Early Intervention Tool that identifies at-risk clinical situations and prompts early actions to mitigate conflict and moral distress. Despite intensive care unit and oncology nurses' reports of tool benefits, they noted some risk to themselves when initiating follow-up actions. The riskiest actions were discussing ethical concerns with physicians, calling for ethics consultation, and initiating patient conversations.

Attitudes toward and uptake of H1N1 vaccine among health care workers during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

Background: Though recommended by many and mandated by some, influenza vaccination rates among health care workers, even in pandemics, remain below optimal levels. The objective of this study was to assess vaccination uptake, attitudes, and distinguishing characteristics (including doctor-nurse differences) of health care workers who did and did not receive the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine in late 2009.

Methodology/principal Findings: In early 2010 we mailed a self-administered survey to 800 physicians and 800 nurses currently licensed and practicing in Minnesota.