title: Evaluating parents' perspectives of pediatric ethics consultation.
abstract: Ethics consultation is a familiar concept to clinicians, and there are site-specific guidelines detailing procedures for both obtaining and performing these consults. Evaluative data about clinician experiences with ethics consults are becoming more extensive but information about family experiences, especially parent perceptions, of the same is lacking. Without a better understanding of those family experiences, an evidence base for ethics consultations cannot be built. This manuscript describes the reasons for obtaining this necessary information, details prior research designed to obtain knowledge about family experiences with pediatric ethics consultations, and suggests mechanisms for acquiring it.
authors.affiliation: UMDNJ School of Nursing, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ 07103, USA. wardf1@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Frances Rieth
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D028741:Ethics Committees, Clinical; D033061:Ethics Consultation; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012106:Research; D014481:United States