Organizational Policy

Healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) is a major patient safety concern and is associated with morbidity, mortality and increased healthcare costs. Prevention and control requires a multi-modal approach, but the individual's accountability and rigorous application of standard infection prevention and control behaviours is at its core. The third instalment of the epic3 guidance ( Loveday et al, 2014a ) provided the evidence and advanced the importance of hand-hygiene behaviour, the use of non-sterile gloves and environmental cleanliness.

Bioethics has focused on the areas of individual ethical choices -- patient care -- or public policy and law. There are however, important arenas for ethical choices that have been overlooked. Health care is populated with intermediate arenas such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and health care systems. This essay argues that bioethics needs to develop a language and concepts for institutional ethics. A first step in this direction is to think about institutional conscience.

Disagreement over the legitimacy of direct sterilization continues within Catholic moral debate, with painful and at times confusing ramifications for Catholic healthcare systems. This paper argues that the medical profession should be construed as a key moral authority in this debate, on two grounds. First, the recent revival of neo-Aristotelianism in moral philosophy as applied to medical ethics has brought out the inherently moral dimensions of the history and current practice of medicine.

In this article, the place and the nature of an ethical dialogue that develops within Christian healthcare institutions in Flanders, Belgium is examined. More specifically, the question is asked how Christian healthcare institutions should position themselves ethically in a context of a pluralistic society. The profile developed by Caritas Catholica Flanders must take seriously not only the external pluralistic context of our society and the internal pluralistic worldviews by personnel/employees and patients, but also the inherent inspiration of a Christian healthcare institution.

As Catholic-owned hospitals merge with or take over other facilities, they impose restrictions on reproductive health services, including abortion and contraceptive services. Our interviews with US obstetrician-gynecologists working in Catholic-owned hospitals revealed that they are also restricted in managing miscarriages. Catholic-owned hospital ethics committees denied approval of uterine evacuation while fetal heart tones were still present, forcing physicians to delay care or transport miscarrying patients to non-Catholic-owned facilities.

This article analyzes the tensions and uneasy negotiations, based on a case study, that occurred among Catholic sisters, administrators, bishops, physicians, and the Vatican for more than seven years at a hospital in Austin, Texas. Here, the largest health care system in the city, which was Catholic, joined with the local public, tax-supported hospital that provided the majority of reproductive health care services in the region. A clash resulted over whether the hospital could continue providing sterilization and contraceptive services to its primarily poor patients.

INTRODUCTION: In the United States, ectopic pregnancies are relatively common and associated with significant maternal morbidity and mortality. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (the Directives) govern the provision of care in Catholic-affiliated hospitals and prohibit the provision of abortion in almost all circumstances.

OBJECTIVE: To understand if women anticipate a difference in reproductive healthcare when attending a Catholic institution. STUDY DESIGN: A convenience sample of reproductive-aged women in the Denver metro area completed an online survey. Women were randomized to hypothetical women's health clinics at either a secular or Catholic hospital and asked about expectations for family planning care. Questions covered contraception and management of abnormal or unintended pregnancy. We subsequently assessed provider/site preferences for care. RESULTS: We analyzed 236 surveys.

This article invites reconsideration of the American Psychological Association's policy permitting sexual involvement between therapists and their former patients under certain conditions. The article (a) restates 5 major concerns about sex after termination that have not been adequately addressed; (b) examines 9 major arguments set forth in support of allowing posttermination sexual relationships, all of which appear ill-founded, fallacious, or misleading; and (c) describes 6 obstacles that seem to hinder attempts to create sound legal and professional policies in this area.

Holistic nurses believe that the human being, composed of a mind, body and soul integrated into an inseparable whole that is greater than the sum of the parts, is in constant interaction with the universe and all that it contains. Health and well-being depend on attaining harmony in these relationships. Healing is the journey toward holism. Using presence, intent, unconditional acceptance, love, and compassion, holistic nurses can facilitate growth and healing and help their clients to find meaning in their life experiences, life purpose, and reason for being.