BackgroundKeeping the patients well and fully informed about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments is one of the patient’s rights in any healthcare system. Although all healthcare providers have the same viewpoint about rendering the truth in treatment process, sometimes the truth is not told to the patients; that is why the healthcare staff tell “white lie” instead. This study aimed to explore the nurses’ experience of white lies during patient care.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted from June to December 2018. Eighteen hospital (...) nurses were recruited with maximum variation from ten state-run educational hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Purposeful sampling was used and data were collected by semi-structured interviews that were continued until data saturation. Data were classified and analyzed by content analysis approach.ResultsThe data analysis in this study resulted in four main categories and 11 subcategories. The main categories included hope crisis, bad news, cultural diversity, and nurses’ limited professional competences.ConclusionResults of the present study showed that, white lie told by nurses during patient care may be due to a wide range of patient, nurse and/or organizational related factors. Communication was the main factor that influenced information rendering. Nurses’ communication with patients should be based on mutual respect, trust and adequate cultural knowledge, and also nurses should provide precise information to patients, so that they can make accurate decisions regarding their health care. (shrink)

Background Moral distress has negative effects on physical and mental health. However, there is little information about nurses’ coping strategies reducing moral distress. Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate the coping strategies of intensive care unit nurses reducing moral distress in Iran. Study design This is a qualitative study with a content analysis approach. Participants and research context The research sample consisted of nurses working in intensive care units of teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical (...) Sciences. Samples were selected among eligible nurses by purposive sampling. Data were obtained through 17 in-depth, individual, and semi-structured interviews with 17 nurses. Graneheim and Lundman’s (2004) 6-step content analysis method was used to analyze the data. Data management was also performed by MAXQDA software version 20. The COREQ checklist was used to report the study. Ethical considerations This project was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All ethical guidelines in research were followed. Finding The data analysis resulted in the formation of two main categories of desirable coping strategies (with two subcategories of compensation and rejuvenation) and less desirable coping strategies (with three subclasses of indifference over time, escape and concealment). Discussion The intensive care unit nurses in dealing with ethical problems first try to solve the problem through discussion, but when they fail to resolve it peacefully, they resort to several coping strategies. Factors, such as increasing experience, lack of support from hospital managers and officials, poor communication between colleagues, the need to maintain hierarchy, fear of reprimand, and a sense of powerlessness, changed the nurses’ preferred strategies. It is important for managers to provide a blame/punishment-free atmosphere for expression of ethical experiences; a supportive atmosphere in which staff can engage in ethical discussions without fear of punishment. They should also provide opportunities for rest, rejuvenation, and adequate training for their employees. (shrink)

Dual-task paradigms encompass a broad range of approaches to measure cognitive load in instructional settings. As a common characteristic, an additional task is implemented alongside a learning task to capture the individual’s unengaged cognitive capacities during the learning process. Measures to determine these capacities are, for instance, reaction times and interval errors on the additional task, while the performance on the learning task is to be maintained. Opposite to retrospectively applied subjective ratings, the continuous assessment within a dual-task paradigm allows (...) to simultaneously monitor changes in the performance related to previously defined tasks. Following the Cognitive Load Theory, these changes in performance correspond to cognitive changes related to the establishment of permanently existing knowledge structures. Yet the current state of research indicates a clear lack of standardization of dual-task paradigms over study settings and task procedures. Typically, dual-task designs are adapted uniquely for each study, albeit with some similarities across different settings and task procedures. These similarities range from the type of modality to the frequency used for the additional task. This results in a lack of validity and comparability between studies due to arbitrarily chosen patterns of frequency without a sound scientific base, potentially confounding variables, or undecided adaptation potentials for future studies. In this paper, the lack of validity and comparability between dual-task settings will be presented, the current taxonomies compared and the future steps for a better standardization and implementation discussed. (shrink)

We conducted a systematic literature review on the ethical considerations of the use of contact tracing app technology, which was extensively implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid and extensive use of this technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, while benefiting the public well-being by providing information about people’s mobility and movements to control the spread of the virus, raised several ethical concerns for the post-COVID-19 era. To investigate these concerns for the post-pandemic situation and provide direction for future events, we (...) analyzed the current ethical frameworks, research, and case studies about the ethical usage of tracing app technology. The results suggest there are seven essential ethical considerations—privacy, security, acceptability, government surveillance, transparency, justice, and voluntariness—in the ethical use of contact tracing technology. In this paper, we explain and discuss these considerations and how they are needed for the ethical usage of this technology. The findings also highlight the importance of developing integrated guidelines and frameworks for implementation of such technology in the post- COVID-19 world. (shrink)

Moral resilience is an emerging concept that has not been fully acknowledged. The aim of this study is to explain lived experiences of moral resilience in intensive care units nurses. This is a qualitative study with a content analysis approach guided by the method of Elo and Kyngäs and based on the theoretical framework of Defilippis et al. Data were collected through 17 in‐depth, individual, and semi‐structured interviews with 17 nurses, who were selected by purposeful sampling. The results of the (...) present study support the theory of Defilippis et al. while adding another category to it. Three categories of self‐awareness, harmonized connection, and moral well‐being, which are consistent with the result of Defilippis et al. were extracted deductively, while the category of moral agency was also extracted inductively from the data. The explanatory theory resulting from Defilippis et al.'s study can be used as a guide to cultivate and improve the moral resilience of nurses working in intensive care units. Moral resilience is fostered in nurses by nurturing and improving their capacities, such as self‐awareness, self‐efficacy, self‐confidence, and self‐reflection. These traits can help maintain and promote moral agency while establishing harmonized connections. Acquiring moral resilience skills can lead to positive outcomes and reduced moral distress. (shrink)

Any author should be happy when commentators on a long book discuss it thoroughly, raise important issues, and show their sensitivity to its main themes. So I want to begin with thanks to Isaac Levi, Peter Machamer, Richard Miller and Dudley Shapere. This is not, of course, to register agreement with all their criticisms. Indeed, that would be impossible, for their perspectives are so varied as to resist integration into a consistent synthesis. Nevertheless, each of them poses problems that my (...) approach to the growth of scientific knowledge must address, and I believe that the combination of their essays greatly advances the discussion. (shrink)

Classical commentary on Brahmasūtra of Bādarāyaṇa, aphoristic work on Vedanta.

The article attempts to define a worldview paradigm in the philosophy of H. Skovoroda. In historical and philosophical studies, there is a certain difference of opinion regarding the evaluation of the main provisions of the Ukrainian’s enlightener philosophy. Scientists emphasize the manifestations of pantheism, dualism, pluralism and mysticism in the work of H. Skovoroda. This is a palette of mutually exclusive definitions of the main philosophies of the thinker.The conducted critical analysis of the Skovoroda’s philosophical heritage allows us to reveal (...) the deistic direction of his worldview positions. However, compared to the conceptual presentation of deism by the founder of the French Enlightenment of the 18th century, F. Walter, the philosophical deistic positions of H. Skovoroda have their own characteristics. The deistic tendencies of Walter’s worldview are based on the principles of rationalism. They permeate the foundations of his theoretical and practical philosophy. The Ukrainian enlightener’s principle of deism is based on manifestations of the highest divine wisdom. They include rational forms of existence and knowledge, spiritual and practical, moral foundations of human existence. (shrink)

Moral theories may differ not only in the substantive moral principles they assert, but also in their concept of a person or moral agent. Thus, for example, Utilitarianism stresses the ability of a human being to calculate rationally the profit and loss which attend particular actions; and Aristotle bases his Nichomachean Ethics on a moral psychology tied to the notion of harmonious self-development.