Approaches and Moral Considerations of a Liver Transplant Team to Conflict About the Treatment of Complications
2018-05
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Approaches and Moral Considerations of a Liver Transplant Team to Conflict About the Treatment of Complications
Authors
Published Date
2018-05
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
Research on the approach to disagreement among patients and providers has generally focused on internal medicine providers. High levels of emotional intelligence and empathy among individual internists appear to confer increased adherence to treatment plans and satisfaction among patients. These qualities may help maintain long-term physician-patient relationships. In the few studies examining surgeons, emotional intelligence, but not empathy, results in increased patient satisfaction only. Some therefore suggest that the clearly defined and short-term relationship between surgeon and patient subverts the need to foster deep empathetic understanding and trust for long-term follow-up. Transplant surgery may be a unique surgical sub-specialty for its use of scarce resources, and because patients are followed over the long-term by interdisciplinary teams of providers. I present the results of a qualitative study suggesting transplant teams may function more like internal medicine teams than other surgical sub-specialties, because transplant social workers and nurses foster trust and empathy, reducing conflict among and between team members and patients. I analyzed the narratives of six liver transplant team members at a large academic medical center in the Midwest. I define the sources of conflict perceived by transplant team members, which extend beyond treatment non-adherence, and their underlying moral understandings. I also describe the importance of trust-building, and the role of the transplant team as a moral community, which functions to examine and decide upon conflicts that arise over broad contexts. These results suggest interdisciplinary transplant teams take on some of the emotional work typically performed by individual internal medicine physicians.
Description
University of Minnesota M.A. thesis.May 2018. Major: Bioethics. Advisor: Joan Liaschenko. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 93 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Scheiner, Nathan. (2018). Approaches and Moral Considerations of a Liver Transplant Team to Conflict About the Treatment of Complications. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/198983.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.