The role of the nurse on hospital ethics committees

Sound decisions are characterized by assurance of adequate information, multiple perspectives, sufficiently deliberate thought, emotional support for all decision makers, and legal acceptability. Each of these features can be enhanced by appropriate involvement of the nurse on an ethics committee. As a result, the nurse will be helping to assure patient, family, and professional participants that they have done their best under difficult constraints. Serving as a member of a hospital ethics committee is time consuming and challenging. Yet, it is one of the most important ways nurses can function in the role of patient advocate. The ethics committee can be the answer to the frustration that nurses confront every day when faced with increased technology, legislative inaction, and medical paternalism. Even competent patients are often manipulated when they want to refuse treatment. Patients and families frequently have the illusion of choice but no real choice at all. If an ethics committee can provide some meaningful avenue for the exercise of patients' and families' rights, then they are worth the effort.