The Ethical Fabric of ICU

Todd Fraser on 08-02-2012

Crit-IQ has just released a thought provoking podcast with Sharyn Milnes. Sharyn is a medical ethicist and lecturer for the Deakin University School of Medicine in Victoria, Australia. In her past life, she was an ICU nurse and has experienced many of the issues she discusses in the podcast. This blog is a place to leave your comments on the podcast. I look forward to hearing your views!

3 Comments

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Oliver Arkell wrote 02-08-2012 10:43:05 pm
Thanks for a great podcast.

The web model of ethics that Sharyn described is very interesting. I guess she's right - the closer the proximity of the relationship the more important it should be in decision making.

Jo Butler wrote 02-08-2012 10:57:10 pm
Well, that's going to put the DonateLife people into a bit of a flap!

I find this really difficult. If the only reason you are going to admit this person to ICU is to potentially salvage their organs, it seems unreasonable to do so without discussing this with the family. On the other hand, doing so in ED when the outcome is not entirely clear and the environment is not altogether suitable doesn't seem quite right either.

I suspect we all insulate ourself from the problem by convincing ourselves that "we're not really sure what's going on, we'll just watch and see for a while".

Todd Fraser wrote 10-07-2012 10:41:22 am
Here's Sharyn's podcast - http://crit-iq.com/index.php/Podcast