Moral Stress in International Humanitarian Aid and Rescue Operations: A Grounded Theory Study

Humanitarian aid professionals frequently encounter situations in which one is conscious of the morally appropriate action but cannot take it because of institutional obstacles. Dilemmas like this are likely to result in a specific kind of stress reaction at the individual level, labeled as moral stress. In our study, 16 individuals working with international humanitarian aid and rescue operations participated in semistructured interviews, analyzed in accordance with a grounded theory approach. A theoretical model of ethical decision making from a moral stress perspective was developed. The practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Ethical Considerations in Crisis and Humanitarian Interventions

The need for professionals to volunteer their time in crisis situations and to reach across time and culture in the service of humanitarian interventions will likely not abate in the near future. This article provides readers with multiple venues for considering the ethical dimensions present in crisis and humanitarian interventions. Core ethical concerns common to helping situations are magnified in crisis work. In addition, issues unique to the nature of volunteer and crisis work must also be considered. Using hypothetical case examples, bioethical principles, and ethical decision-making models, helping professionals are encouraged to go beyond their particular ethical codes in contemplating ethically and clinically sensitive volunteering.     

Ethical Guidelines for Mass Trauma and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies

Issues pertaining to trauma, especially mass trauma and complex humanitarian emergencies, are explored through the lens of ethical counseling guidelines. In mass trauma, particular attention must be paid to the experiences of both survivors and counselors to enhance understanding of ethical best practices and to emphasize the importance of contextual factors in framing effective responses to trauma and humanitarian crises. Recommendations regarding ethical guidelines for counseling practice, clinical involvement, and training are offered.     

Prioritizing emergency shelter areas using hybrid multi‐criteria decision approach: A case study

Every year, more than 400 natural disasters affect global population. Adopting a resilient approach strengthens communities to survive and recover well from destabilizing events. Disasters destroy or damage houses and infrastructure, which calls for arrangement of temporary establishments to provide immediate evacuation and shelter to affected population. These sites are vital for an effective relief and must be strategically planned. Communities living in disaster‐prone areas should prepare themselves well in advance for any future catastrophic event. This study adopts a hybrid group decision support approach for emergency shelter site selection problem. Initially, relevant factors for locating potential sites are identified by reviewing extant literature and through consultation from a panel of disaster management experts. Next, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process theory and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution have been used to prioritize identified criteria and to evaluate potential locations for displacement sites. A case study of the recent Nepal earthquake has been used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The model offers a resilience building approach to prepare communities for any future contingency by proposing and prioritizing a set of planned displacement sites.     

树立急救白金10分钟理念，提高社区猝死抢救成功率

探讨建立社区急救体系提高猝死抢救成功率,比较国际与我国的急救现状、分析建立社区急救体系的保障因素、建立大众与社区急救流程、分析“急救白金十分钟”抢救的时效性规律。提出建立社区以家庭为个体急救单位、单元有志愿者、大楼设置救护小组、社区内建立自救站的大众急救网络;在其中组织多层面的大众急救宣传的培训;设置醒目的急救器械;设置社区内的急救流程。社区医院的建设需要政府的大力支持,要努力提高急救人员素质、建立长期培训和准入制度、高危人群筛查、建立对讲呼叫通讯网络、配备急足够的急救器材。最终建立和达到社会范畴的“急救白金十分钟”的时效性理想。     

反贫困背景下我国医疗救助对象分类研究

从反贫困这一社会问题入手,突出医疗救助对象分类需要进一步完善的重要性,通过分类救助理论研究现状的探讨,对我国探索分类救助制度的现状进行了阐述,并分析了制约分类救助发展的因素,在此基础上,阐述了国际上实施医疗救助对象分类的成功经验和启示,并提出了我国在反贫困背景下医疗救助对象分类的对策建议。     

论医学人文精神的历史走向

医学人文精神和医学科学精神的整合交融,是医学走向成熟的标志,对生命的终极关怀,是医学人文精神的基本内涵;对医患关系的理解和介入方式,是医学人文精神切入实践的关键;医学人文品格是医学人文精神的良性载体和职业表征。是医生理想的职业人格。这四个问题从不同角度,不同层面凸现了医学人文精神的实质,反映了在新医学模式背景下医学人文精神的历史走向。     

Research in Applied Ethics: Problems and Perspectives

The last few decades have seen a dramatic increase in concern with matters of ethics in all areas of public life. This ‘applied turn’ in ethics raises important issues not only of focus, but also of methodology. Sometimes a moral end or moral feature is designed into an institution or technology; sometimes a morally desirable outcome is the fortuitous, but unintended, consequence of an institutional arrangement or technological invention. If designing-in ethics is the new methodological orientation for applied ethics, globalisation is providing many of the practical ethical problems upon which to deploy this methodology. This is a revised version of an article that was presented at the 2007 Applied Ethics Conference in Sapporo, Japan, hosted by the University of Hokkaido. Thanks to Jeroen van den Hoven for the key idea of ‘designing-in-ethics’.     

How People Can Benefit from Mental Health Consumer-Run Organizations

The goal of this study is to develop a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of the processes by which people can benefit from mental health consumer-run organizations (CROs). To accomplish this goal, the concept of roles is used to create a preliminary framework that draws connections between several established theoretical explanations. To ground theory development in empirical data, 194 CRO members from 20 CROs answered open-ended questions about what personal changes occurred as a result of their CRO involvement and what CRO participation experiences enabled personal change. Data analysis led to the identification of 18 personal change categories and 7 experiences that led to change. These categories were integrated into the preliminary theoretical framework, which needed to be extended to accommodate all categories. While inevitably tentative, the final conceptualization provides a more comprehensive understanding of the processes by which people can benefit from CRO participation.     

The effects of predictive ability information,locus of control,and decision maker involvement on decision aid reliance

This study examines several factors that influence decision makers' willingness to rely on mechanical decision aids. The first experiment examined the effects of predictive ability information and locus of control on decision aid reliance. The results indicate that decision makers were more likely to rely on a decision aid when its predictive validity was not disclosed. Further, decision makers with an external locus of control relied more on the decision aid than those with an internal locus of control. The second experiment expanded upon this result to examine the interactive effects of decision maker involvement and locus of control. The results suggest that involving decision makers in the aid's development enhanced reliance. However, decision makers with an internal locus of control were more strongly influenced by this form of involvement (in terms of increasing their reliance on the decision aid) than decision makers with an external locus of control. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.