In the traditional medical field, the patient was a person to receive protection from the doctor because there are vertical relationship between the patient and the doctor. But in modern medical field, patients change their role to health-care consumer to be guaranteed their rights more actively. This study compare patient's rights in doctor's vocational ethics and patient's rights in law, consumer rights. This study analyzes what is type of law-relationship between patients and doctor and how can they act health-care as health-care consumer.
Ethics ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Patient Rights*

Non-disclosure in Paediatric Practice is a controversial issue. There was a time when the care of children was solely the responsibility of parents and any decision with respect to treatment or non-treatment would have been the joint responsibility of the parents and of the attending medical professionals. This practice, viewed as adopting a more paternalistic approach, has been challenged in many parts of the world. In essence what is being challenged is the notion that the sole responsibility of decision-making rests with parents.
Clinical Competence ; Communication ; Decision Making ; Ethics, Medical ; Humans ; Parent-Child Relations ; Patient Rights ; ethics ; Pediatrics ; ethics ; Physician-Patient Relations ; ethics ; Practice Patterns, Physicians' ; Truth Disclosure ; ethics

This year on May 21st, the full panel of the Supreme Court in Korea had first made a judgment on 'withdrawal of life-sustaining management'. In this case, where a 76 -year-old patient was represented by her children, while being in a persistent vegetative status, the Supreme Court ruled that if a patient is in an irreversible condition with imminent death and the discontinuation of treatment can be approved as the patient's self -determination, while such action will not be allowed in any other special circumstances. This judgement presented the general criteria and process of withdrawal of life -sustaining management in Korea for the first time. The Supreme Court also brought about the specific requirements of advance directives and decided that in case where legal proceedings are not taken, the hospital ethic committee constiting of medical specialists should decide whether the patient is in an irreversible condition. However, the judgment vaguely defined the concept of 'irreversible death-imminent condition' and did not clearly examine the relations between the patient's right on self-determination and the duty of the national government to protect the life of the people, and the discretionary power of the doctor.
Advance Directives ; Child ; Ethics Committees, Clinical ; Ethics, Institutional ; Euthanasia ; Federal Government ; Humans ; Judgment ; Korea ; Patient Rights ; Right to Die ; Specialization

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the experiences of ethical issues and needs for ethics education in clinical nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was used and data were collected in 2013. Participants were 428 clinical nurses working in the general units of seven medical hospitals. The Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice Tool was used. Data analysis was performed using SPSS/WIN 19.0. RESULTS: 'Providing care with a possible risk to your health' was the most frequent and disturbing ethical problems for nurses. The highest helpful ethical topic was 'the patients' right, autonomy and informed consent'. The ethical issue experience was significantly different according to education level, work units, and type of employment. The necessity of ethics education was statistically different according to age, religion, level of education, duration of working as RN, position, shift type, and continuing education about nursing ethics. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that nursing educators need to provide practical ethics education based on frequent ethical issues and helpful education topics. These findings can be used in developing effective education strategies for clinical nurses and nursing organizations to improve nurses' ethical decision-making abilities.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Education* ; Education, Continuing ; Education, Nursing ; Employment ; Ethics* ; Ethics, Nursing ; Nursing ; Patient Rights ; Statistics as Topic

Along with the advances in medical technology and the economic development, more terminally ill patients are receiving hospice and palliative care services. Moreover, hospice and palliative care clinicians have been showing considerable interest in studies that aim to improve the quality of said care for patients and their families. Meanwhile, after the government has strengthened its policy to protect research participants, the institutional review boards (IRBs) are more closely examining various ethical issues related to patients' vulnerability when reviewing protocols for hospice and palliative care research. However, terminally ill patients should be provided with guaranteed qualities of hospice and palliative care to improve and maintain their quality of life. To that end, support should be provided for efforts to conduct ethical and safe studies with hospice and palliative care patients. Thus, this review paper proposes ethical guidelines for hospice and palliative care research. The guidelines could be appropriately used as a reference for researchers who should prepare for ethically safe and scientifically valued research protocols and the IRBs that will review the protocols.
Economic Development ; Ethics ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Hospice Care ; Hospices ; Human Experimentation ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Patient Rights ; Quality of Life ; Terminally Ill

PURPOSE: The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the pattern of physical restraints used in ICUs and to identify influencing factors of application and removal of restraints. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 90 restrained patients out of 215 patients over 6 years old who were admitted to 6 ICUs in SMC during a 2 weeks period. The data was collected through a questionnaire of characte-ristics, guidelines and nursing care of restraint uses. The data were analyzed by non-parametric statistic with the use of the SAS program. RESULTS: The restraints were applied to 31.4% of subjects. Mean time of physical restraint was 36.76 55.7 hours. There were significant difference with mean time and frequency according to duty shift. GCS, restless behavior and discomfort factors, medical devices, and life sustaining devices had significant relation with application of restraints. In addition, the mean time of restraints used were related significantly with GCS, restless behavior, and discomfort factors. CONCLUSION: The used of restraints were dependent on mainly the nurses' decision. Thus ICU nurses have to develop the guidelines to applying restraints and removal of restraints in regard to patients rights and ethics. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of application of the restraints is essential in professional nursing.
Child ; Ethics ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Patient Rights ; Restraint, Physical* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The Chinese medical ethics committee and the ethical review system have made the following achievements: (1) enabled the institutionalization of medical ethics, (2) carried out the ethics review of Chinese medicine (CM) and integrative medicine extensively, (3) trained a large number of ethical professionals, (4) supported and protected the interests of patients and subjects, and (5) ensured the correct direction of biological research and provided ethical defense for the publication of its results. However, at the same time, they are also faced with some new problems and difficulties that need to be resolved in the following ways: (1) to refine the relevant rules of ethical review, (2) to develop the relevant standards of the CM and integrative medicine ethical review, (3) to enhance the independence and authority of ethics committee, (4) to emphasize innovation and to discover and solve new problems, and (5) to increase international exchanges and improve relevant research.
Ethical Review ; Ethics, Medical ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends ; Patient Rights

PURPOSE: This study has been designed to identify attitudes to euthanasia held by Korean nurses. METHOD: Data were collected through a survey, and the participants in the study were 234 Korean nurses. Convenience sampling method was used and analysis of the data was done with SPSS PC for descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. RESULTS: 1. The mean score for euthanasia was 2.80, and the sub dimension mean scores were, patients' rights, 3.24, quality of life, 2.78, respect for life, 2.68, medical ethics, 2.50. 2. With respect to the general characteristics of participants there were statistically significant difference in total score according to religion (P=.01), and degree of influence of religion on behavior (P=.00). 3. There were statistically significant difference in score of quality of life according to religion (P=.04), degree of influence of religion on behavior (P=.00), decisions in euthanasia (P=0.04), and legal permission (P=.04). 4. There was statistically significant difference in score of patient's right according to legal permission (P=.04). 5. There were statistically significant difference in the score of respect for life according to religion (P=.00), degree of influence of religion on behavior (P=.00), decision in euthnasia (P=.00), and legal permission (P=.00).
Ethics, Medical ; Euthanasia ; Euthanasia, Passive* ; Patient Rights ; Quality of Life ; Value of Life

Attitude to Health ; Civil Defense ; ethics ; Communicable Disease Control ; Communication ; Ethics, Medical ; Freedom ; Health Personnel ; ethics ; Health Planning ; ethics ; Health Priorities ; ethics ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; Mandatory Programs ; ethics ; Moral Obligations ; Pandemics ; ethics ; Patient Rights ; ethics ; Primary Health Care ; ethics ; Public Health ; ethics ; Public Health Administration ; ethics ; Resource Allocation ; ethics ; Singapore ; Trust

PURPOSE: There is increasing concern about ethical conduct of human research in the field of medicine. The purpose of this study was to assess the ethical review process by institutional review boards for human research articles published in the journal of Korean Society of Emergency Medicine. METHODS: We reviewed human research papers published in the journal of Korean Society of Emergency Medicine from the 1st edition, 1990 to the 6th edition, 2006. A checklist was used to review the articles. RESULTS: The total number of prospective clinical research paper was 250. Among them, there were 63 papers (25.2%) in which the obtaining of informed consent was described in the article. Only two studies (0.8%) published in the journal were noted to have IRB approval. Invasive techniques were employed in 134 studies (53.6%). Among the 134, only 22 (16.4%) mentioned that informed consent taken was given during the study. Studies which may have involved discrimination totaled 21 (8.4%), and the number of studies that may have violated the patients' right to privacy was 20 (8%). The number of studies that may have a conflict of interest but was not declared was 12 (4.8%). CONCLUSION: There should be greater concern about the ethical conduct of research in studies with human research subjects in the journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine.
Bioethics ; Checklist ; Conflict of Interest ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medicine ; Ethical Review ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Helsinki Declaration ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Patient Rights ; Privacy ; Research Subjects