We have to learn to come up with a resolution that leaves everyone feeling comfortable. This spring, faculty from nursing, theology, and the Center for Ethics in Public Policy and the Professions brought these issues to the classroom by offering Emory's first interdisciplinary course in health care ethics. The university supported this innovative program with a Teaching Scholar Award. The language and leverage of ethics provide nurses with a tool of empowerment. It is a language that appeals to principles and values, one they can use when expressing viewpoints on difficult health care issues.
Theologians handle the concept of death more easily, as life's natural end.
The changing face of health care delivery complicates the scenario. Greater numbers of advanced practitioner nurses are now delivering primary care, thus forming long-term health care relationships with patients, adds Timothy Jackson, PhD, assistant professor of Christian Ethics with the Candler School of Theology. Based on that strong bond, nurses could find themselves in the difficult moral dilemma that surrounds a request for assisted death. When we walk into a patient's room, we don't check our values at the door. In this class, we teach people to recognize who they are.