['Zero isolation', a care practice oriented towards recovery]. / "Zéro isolement", une pratique de soins orientée vers le rétablissement.

Some institutions do not have an isolation room. Agitation is managed otherwise, with the idea that restraint or isolation can only be a terrible experience. The care pathway is therefore designed to favour autonomy and to limit restrictions of freedom. In this context, professionals are in constant contact with the user. Example of a unit which advocates this concept of rehabilitation.

Oriental medicine professionals' duty to inform patients.

Oriental medicine has constituted a significant portion of health care in Korea, but discussion regarding the legal duties of Oriental medicine professionals has been marginalized. This article proposes the first step in discussing the duty of Oriental doctors and pharmacists to inform their patients about the medicine they provide. It begins by introducing the only decision the Supreme Court of Korea has made regarding the legal obligation of Oriental medicine professionals, where the Court held that the Oriental medicine retailer had a duty to provide information about the medicine being sold. This article supports that decision of the Supreme Court and further argues that other primary providers of Oriental medicine-Oriental doctors and pharmacists-should also bear the duty to inform. The conclusion is driven from the fundamental principle of the Korean Constitution: that everyone is entitled to the right to self-determination. In discussing the scope of information doctors and pharmacists should provide, this article notes the unique features of Oriental medicine used in Korea. The author concludes that Oriental doctors and pharmacists should inform their patients of the nature and effect of the medicine being provided, detailed usage instructions, potential risks associated with the medicine, and information regarding combined use with conventional medicine. As for restorative Oriental medicine, doctors and pharmacists should particularly provide instructions regarding its unique restorative purpose.

[The growing importance of ethics in medical care and research]. / Die wachsende Bedeutung von medizinischer Ethik in Versorgung und Forschung.

The integration of medical humanities into future patient care and medical research will become as importance for trust, care and health as the natural sciences were during the last 100 years. In particular, improvements of lay health literacy and responsibility, new forms of physician-nurse partnership and expert-lay interaction, also revisions of clinical research towards models of informed contract will improve trust and health on a global scale, allow for healthier and happier citizens and populations and eventually might reduce health care costs.

Nursing, religiosity, and end-of-life care: interconnections and implications.

The influence of religious beliefs and practices at the end of life is underinvestigated. Given nursing's advocacy role and the intimate and personal nature of the dimensions of religiosity and the end of life, exploring the multidimensional interplay of religiosity and end-of-life care is a significant aspect of the nurse-patient relationship and must be better understood. The question that must be faced is whether nurses' own belief systems impinge on or influence patient care, especially for patients who are at the end of life. When nurses understand their own beliefs and respect the religious practices and needs of patients and their families, it deepens the humanistic dimensions of the nurse-patient relationship.

Midwives and nurses awareness of patients' rights.

AIM: to determine the level of awareness of patients' rights among midwives and nurses working in the third and fourth largest cities in Turkey. METHODS: cross-sectional descriptive survey conducted among participants working in university hospitals, state hospitals and village clinics. Questionnaires were distributed to 150 midwives and 350 nurses working in university hospitals (n = 200), state hospitals (n = 100) and village clinics (n = 100); 60% (n = 298) of the forms were returned. FINDINGS: fifty-one per cent (n = 152) of midwives and nurses stated that they had not read any legislation related to patients' rights. Seventy-five per cent (n = 222) of respondents were aware of the legal arrangements. Only 34% (n = 74) of participants who knew of any legal basis for patients' rights said that legislation was in the form of a directive. No significant differences were observed in midwives' answers compared with nurses' answers. CONCLUSION: violation of patients' rights and health professionals' ignorance of appropriate practice means that there is an urgent need to reconsider how to approach this issue. It should be included in continuing education programmes at both graduate and postgraduate midwifery and nursing schools, and also demands more research.

The remains of the body: human tissue, competence and consent in an age of profit.

Over the past few decades human tissues and fluids have increasingly become of interest to health-oriented research due to their potential use in the development of new diagnostic tools, drugs and treatment modalities. They have also become valuable commodities that figure prominently in the recovery of hormones for cosmetic purposes, the production of proteins and in a whole range of uses in the biopharmacological industry. Unfortunately, current understanding of the ethical and legal status of human tissue and fluids, and of the conditions under which they may be recovered and used, is somewhat uneven. The aim of this presentation is to outline the ethical and legal considerations that must be met if a recovery and use protocol is to meet appropriate standards.

Best interests. An holistic approach: Part 2(b).

In the last article principles and guidelines were discussed that related to the ways in which nurses have to work with the best interests of their patients in mind. Where a person is ordinarily capable of consenting to or refusing to consent to, a proposed course of treatment or care but has temporarily lost that capacity, there are certain legal guidelines to follow to ensure that the minimum interventions occur until the person regains their capacity to act in their own interests. However, also highlighted was that that certain people have never attained capacity, or do not yet have capacity or have lost capacity on a permanent basis. For these people, there are legal principles that are incorporated in the Mental Capacity Act and these have to be abided by. This article is dedicated to a review of the situation where, sadly, a person has been assessed as not being legally competent to make their own health decisions. However, where a programme of treatment and care has been clinically proposed, the person refuses to co-operate. The situation of enforced treatment and care is a delicate one. Staff have to be aware of the legal principles that apply, with reference to the Mental Capacity Act.

Examining advocacy and comprehensive cancer control.

The effectiveness of advocacy has been well documented and its use established as a common practice in furthering sound public health policy and practices. Efforts are underway to explain how advocacy has supported, shaped and influenced public policy concerning -- and the growth and development of -- comprehensive cancer control initiatives. The objective of this paper is to assess the history, current role and future of advocacy as a means of articulating the value of, and furthering, comprehensive cancer control practices. Comprehensive cancer control is approaching a critical moment in its development, and a unified approach is necessary to achieve common goals. A call to action for supporting and contributing to the success of a comprehensive approach to cancer control is more important today than it was 11 years ago. Advocacy is an essential strategy in that call to action.