Written by Azimjon Karimov
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Although psychedelics were banned from medical research for about fifty years, recent early-phase studies indicate they may offer unique therapeutic benefits for various mental health and substance use disorders. When effective, psychedelic experiences often involve phenomena not typically observed in other medical or psychiatric interventions, such as a diminished sense of self-importance, insights that are difficult to articulate, feelings of connection and unity with others, and encounters wi
Written by Zhang Rui
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Pediatricians working in low-resource environments encounter ethical problems that differ from those seen in wealthier healthcare systems. Only a small number of studies from developing nations have examined how pediatricians understand, perceive, and navigate the ethical challenges inherent to such settings. To contribute to this limited body of evidence, we investigated the clinical ethical knowledge, attitude, and experience of physicians employed in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Hea
Written by Sanjib Barua
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Understanding and applying medical ethics is increasingly recognized as essential in medical education. This research comprised two studies: the first evaluated clinicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practices regarding medical ethics at Patan Academy of Health Sciences, a tertiary teaching hospital in Nepal, while the second compared these outcomes between doctors who had formal medical ethics training during their undergraduate studies and those who had not. Two cross-sectional su
Written by Cho Min-jung
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
As Canadian investigators engaged in a qualitative project involving adults with and without disabilities in Uganda, we secured approval from four research ethics boards—two based in Canada and two located in Uganda. Ethical oversight in Canada is guided by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2), while Ugandan researchers adhere to the National Guidelines for Research Involving Humans as Research Participants (NGRU). Despite obtaining authorizatio
Written by Rina Shrestha
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Patient involvement in clinical ethics support services (CESS) is increasingly recognized as important, yet global practices vary widely and comprehensive theoretical or empirical studies are scarce. Limited evidence from Europe suggests that patient participation in CESS (hereafter referred to as PP) differs by region and type of service, ranging from being entirely absent to patients acting as full dialogue partners. In contrast, North America appears to have more uniform adoption of PP. Altho
Written by Pham Quang Huy
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
As hospitals have evolved and become more intricate, the ethical dilemmas they face have also increased in complexity. To address this, many institutions have implemented health care ethics programs (HCEPs) that extend beyond simple ethics consultation services, yet comprehensive research on these programs remains limited. A national, cross-sectional survey targeting a stratified sample of 600 U.S. hospitals was conducted to assess the presence, functions, activities, staffing, workload, funding
Written by Matthias Zimmer
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Effective teamwork plays a crucial role in emergency medical services in enhancing patient safety. However, the possible impact of staff gender on communication patterns, patient safety outcomes, and overall team performance has rarely been considered. This study seeks to investigate these largely neglected aspects. An anonymous descriptive survey was conducted via an online questionnaire distributed to emergency physicians and paramedics. Respondents were asked to share their views on teamwork,
Written by Benjamín Herreros
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Medical practitioners commonly deal with moral tensions and difficult choices in patient care, prompting increased attention to the concept of conscientious objection (CO). Spain’s health system currently offers no formal guidance on what constitutes valid reasons for CO, how it should be properly exercised, or how best to assist professionals who choose to invoke it. A well-defined procedural framework is therefore necessary. This framework must ensure responsible use of CO by clinicians while
Written by Rachel C Greer
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Securing genuine informed consent can be difficult, especially where literacy levels are low, yet it remains a crucial safeguard for individuals participating in global health studies. This paper examines the specific barriers to obtaining meaningful consent when recruiting research participants from mainly hill-tribe communities in northern Thailand. We examined the obstacles and possible ways forward to obtaining meaningful consent by conducting a qualitative investigation among a predominantl
Written by Candice Cornelis
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Massively parallel sequencing methods, including whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), can uncover unsolicited findings (UFs) that are unrelated to the original diagnostic goal. These approaches are commonly applied in the diagnostic evaluation of children with developmental delay (DD). However, existing policy guidelines on informed consent and the return of UFs are not adequately prepared to handle the unique moral issues that can emerge in such pediatric cases. In th
Written by Roya Malekzadeh
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous nations focused on developing and delivering reliable vaccines to manage the outbreak and safeguard community well-being. The deployment of immunization efforts has raised several moral challenges that require careful identification and resolution. For this reason, the current investigation aimed to explore the ethical aspects of COVID-19 immunization as viewed by frontline healthcare personnel. This qualitative investigation took place
Written by Katharina Tilch
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
With the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), scientists worldwide encountered substantial obstacles. The German National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON) was established in the fall of 2020 to make optimal use of available resources and coordinate research initiatives to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the initial setup phase of NAPKON as a representative case for multicenter research efforts in Germany, with particula
Written by Martina E. Gustavsson
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Healthcare professionals (HCWs) often experience moral stress and distress when faced with ethical dilemmas in which aligning their actions with their core moral beliefs becomes difficult. During major crises like disasters or pandemics, these ethically complex moments become far more common, mainly due to the growing mismatch between what patients need and the limited resources available. That said, the concepts of moral stress and moral distress are applied inconsistently across the literature
Written by Hamideh Hakimi
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Moral courage represents a vital quality that enables nurses to effectively manage ethical challenges, fulfill their professional responsibilities toward patients, and consistently uphold core ethical standards. This trait can be shaped by a range of influences, including personal attributes, professional elements, organizational conditions, and leadership dynamics. The current study sought to identify the key predictors of moral courage in nurses practicing in hospital settings. In 2018, a cros
Written by Elleke Landeweer
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, national governments introduced strict measures—including visitor bans, prohibitions on group activities, and quarantine protocols—to shield nursing home residents from infection. With safety as the overriding priority, residents and their close relatives were compelled to accept these limitations. Their viewpoints matter greatly because the policies profoundly affected their lives, yet they were left out of the decision-making process. This study explores th
Written by Tsegaye Melaku
Published in Vol 5 Issue 2, 2025
Ethical thinking and awareness are crucial in all areas of public health, but they are even more significant in the delicate, multifaceted field of public health emergency preparedness. This study investigated the ethical issues and moral dilemmas experienced by frontline health workers during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic in Ethiopia. A nationwide survey was conducted among frontline health workers at nineteen public hospitals. Participants were asked to fill out a self-adminis
