UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery Annual Report 2020

Healthcare Experience, Engagement and Reform

THEME 2 – HEALTHCARE ETHICS AND END-OF-LIFE CARE

AIM To develop excellence in research related to the ethical challenges that arise in clinical practice, especially, in relation to the treatment and care of dying patients and their families. Our interests include: ethical decision-making frameworks; end-of-life care and its impact on vulnerable individuals; nursing and midwifery ethics; feminist ethics; moral distress of health professionals. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES • To develop knowledge, educational and organisational interventions that support ethically and legally sound nursing and midwifery practices in hospital and community healthcare settings. • To undertake research in end-of-life treatment and care that contributes to the improvement of patients’, families’ and health workers’ experiences of death and dying. • To conduct research on the role of health professionals and carers in supporting vulnerable people e.g. with an intellectual disability and/or dementia at end of life. • To support the expansion and translation of research on end-of-life decision making and advance care planning to enable healthcare staff and family to deliver care consistent with the values and preferences of the patients towards and at end of life. • To collaborate locally, nationally and internationally in order to share knowledge, build interdisciplinary and global networks and advance the field of healthcare ethics and end-of-life care.

The following five stories provide examples of some of the work undertaken as part of this research theme in 2020.

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