Preventive ethics in the intensive care unit

摘要

Preventive ethics proposes that ethical conflict is largely predictable and can be avoided with proactive interventions aimed at the organization, unit, and individual levels.1'2 The goals of preventive ethics are to use a proactive approach to identify common triggers of ethical conflict and to address these triggers before they contribute to conflict.1'2 Therefore, preventive ethics represents a dramatic shift from the traditional ethics approach, which uses a case-by-case approach-reacting to ethically challenging patient situations as they arise in the clinical setting or when a consultation is requested.