How to Review Additional Information

The chair of the hospital’s Ethics Committee has asked you to develop a policy for treating patients on methadone who need an organ transplant.  As a second step in that process, she’s asked you to review some articles (sent in her email) and then organize the material for the committee to review.  

This step-by-step guide will help you work through the process of reviewing those articles and documenting your ideas using the template Dr. Jones provided.

1. Review the email from Dr. Jones. You may want to print the email and highlight the important points.

2. Download the Article Review template. Each team member should download his/her own copy of the template.

3. Individually download and read the articles. Before you begin to make decisions, it’s helpful to review additional research on the topic. The articles the chair sent you will give you new perspectives and insights into the issue. Some of the articles you read may be very persuasive. As you read them, keep in mind that you are still gathering information. It is still too early to formulate a final opinion about Mr. F’s situation.

As you read each article, you should specifically consider the following:

1. How does the article address problems in this case?   You may wish to refer back to your completed Defining the Ethical Principles Template from the previous task. Think about the problems the committee is addressing in Mr. F’s case. How does the resource article address one or more of those problems? What does the article say about it?  Capture your ideas on the Article Notes template.


2. Does the article present an opinion on how to handle the problem? Does the author suggest a solution to any of the problems the committee is considering? Do they defend the solution they propose? If they are in favor of transplant for patients on methadone maintenance, for example, do they state a reason for their position? Capture your ideas on the Article Notes template.


3. Does the article present any new information on the topic? Does the author suggest anything you haven’t thought about before? Do they give information that offers insight into any of the problems the committee is considering?
   
   For example, an article may indicate a standard rate of relapse for patients on methadone maintenance. This information might give use more insight into whether or not Mr. F’s potential for relapse should be a consideration in our final decision.
   
   As you capture information on your Article Notes template include your ideas for how the information might influence our ultimate decision in this case.


4. Reconvene with your team to discuss each article. Be sure to review each point listed above.


5. Update your analysis template. Based on the conversation with your team, make any edits to your template to be sure you've captured the key arguments and supporting points of each article you've read.


6. Submit your work. Each team member should submit his/her own copy of the template for this task. Review the checklist on the Submit Your Work section of this task and submit the document to your mentor.

Articles

What is Ethics? This short paper answers the question, "what is ethics?" and provides an overview of how it's used.

Gaining an Ethical Perspective: Gaining the proper perspective on a situation is the first step in solving in any ethical dilemma. This paper explains how to go about gaining that perspective.

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