Morisprudence: a theoretical framework for studying the relationship linking moral case deliberation, organisational learning and quality improvement.Niek Kok,Marieke Zegers,Hans van der Hoeven,Cornelia Hoedemaekers &Jelle van Gurp -2022 -Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (11):868-876.detailsThere is a claim that clinical ethics support services (CESS) improve healthcare quality within healthcare organisations. However, there is lack of strong evidence supporting this claim. Rather, the current focus is on the quality of CESS themselves or on individual learning outcomes. In response, this article proposes a theoretical framework leading to empirical hypotheses that describe the relationship between a specific type of CESS, moral case deliberation and the quality of care at the organisational level. We combine insights from the (...) literature on CESS, organisational learning and quality improvement and argue that moral case deliberation causes healthcare professionals to acquire practical wisdom. At the organisational level, where improving quality is a continuous and collective endeavour, this practical wisdom can be aggregated into morisprudence, which is an ongoing formulation of moral judgements across cases encountered within the organisation. Focusing on the development of morisprudence enables refined scrutinisation of CESS-related quality claims. (shrink)
Ethical problems in intensive care unit admission and discharge decisions: a qualitative study among physicians and nurses in the Netherlands.Anke J. M. Oerlemans,Nelleke van Sluisveld,Eric S. J. van Leeuwen,Hub Wollersheim,Wim J. M. Dekkers &Marieke Zegers -2015 -BMC Medical Ethics 16 (1):9.detailsThere have been few empirical studies into what non-medical factors influence physicians and nurses when deciding about admission and discharge of ICU patients. Information about the attitudes of healthcare professionals about this process can be used to improve decision-making about resource allocation in intensive care. To provide insight into ethical problems that influence the ICU admission and discharge process, we aimed to identify and explore ethical dilemmas healthcare professionals are faced with.
Culture, normativity and morisprudence: a response to the commentaries.Niek Kok,Marieke Zegers,Cornelia Hoedemaekers &Jelle van Gurp -2022 -Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (12):985-986.detailsWe are grateful for the thoughtful replies to our article. 1 We are especially encouraged that all respondents agree that it is of value to develop a theoretical framework which helps to study how clinical ethics support services (CESS) induce individual and organisational learning. We have focused on the relations between moral case deliberation (MCD), organisational learning and quality improvement from a predominantly sociological perspective. The goal of our theoretical framework was to establish hypotheses which allow for empirical evaluation of (...) the relation between CESS and quality of care. Two major concerns seem to underly the commentaries: the framework (1) lacks a normative standard which allows for ethical justification of the outcome of repeated MCD, 2 and (2) the focus on morisprudence does not sufficiently emphasise the need for ‘structured, consistent, and facilitated processes for fair and robust moral case deliberation’. 3 In other words, it... (shrink)
Moral Distress: The Context of Measurement.Niek Kok,Marieke Zegers,Cornelia Hoedemaekers &Jelle van Gurp -2023 -American Journal of Bioethics 23 (4):71-74.detailsKolbe and de Melo-Martin (2023) provide a much needed reflection on the methods by which we measure moral distress. Their analysis, however, gives off the impression that the measures of moral dist...