Special Issue Editor: Settimio Monteverde
Deadline for Submissions: 11 January 2016
Among the paradoxes of societies facing the challenges of longevity, healthcare systems having to
respond to needs for ‘assisted living’ as well as for assisted dying is one of the most striking one. In most
countries, patients’ rights have been extended to endorse also the end of their lives and situations of mental
incapacity. Statutory as well as common law has confirmed the validity of advance directives and legal
powers of attorney. In some countries, assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia have been established
as practices that can be performed when specific conditions are met, among them that patients are competent
and offered effective palliative care.
Many papers have been published in Nursing Ethics over the years devoted to explore nurses’ roles and
attitudes in providing care at the edges of life, specifically in the context of medically assisted death. There
is empirical evidence about the key roles nurses play in assessing wishes to die, assuring continuity of care
and in assisting patients in clarifying their values when approaching their lives’ end. Given changes to, and
attempts to change, legislation in different countries, it is timely to reconsider the ethics of assisted dying
and the implications for caring practices. For this special issue of Nursing Ethics, we invite authors to submit
contributions that address conceptual, empirical and philosophical aspects of assisted dying in relation
to nursing and other caring practices. Questions for exploration might include
Go to: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/fhms/research/centres/ICE/route of administration, concurrent benzodiazepines, nor ingestion of ETOH were associated with significant decreases in systolic BP or heart rate (P = ns for all comparisons). Decreases in oxygen saturations, however, were significantly larger in ETOH+ patients who received IM olanzapine or IM olanzapine + benzodiazepines. Route of administration, concurrent benzodiazepines, nor ingestion of ETOH was associated with significant decreases in systolic blood pressure or heart rate (p = ns for all comparisons). Decreases in oxygen saturations, however, were significantly larger in ETOH+ patients who received IM olanzapine or IM olanzapine + benzodiazepines. Conclusions: Oral olanzapine was not associated with significant vital sign changes in ED patients. Intramuscular olanzapine also was not associated with vital sign changes in ETOH− patients. In ETOH+ patients, IM olanzapine was associated with significant oxygen desaturations. In ETOH+ ED patients, oral olanzapine (with or without benzodiazepines) or haloperidol may be safer choices. ETOH+ patients may have differential effects with the use of IM SGAs such as olanzapine and should be studied separately in drug trials.
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