Clinician Attitudes Concerning Ethical Practice In Nutrition Care: A.S.P.E.N. Member Prespective

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a survey to identify current practice and attitudes of the American Society for Parenteral Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) members and assess needs for change and enhancement in dealing with ethical dilemmas in the healthcare setting. With the present day biomedical technological advancement, questions about clinician attitudes concerning ethical practice specifically with nutrition therapies arise. The controversy to initiate or continue nutrition support in some patients remains especially without a standardized systemic approach in place. The International Clinical Ethics Section (I.C. Ethics) of A.S.P.E.N. developed this survey to identify current practice and attitudes of A.S.P.E.N. members and assess education needs. Survey questions were assembled with input from 20 I.C. Ethics' members, representing international clinicians from medicine, dietetics, pharmacy, and nursing with different levels of experience and two academic advisers. The A.S.P.E.N. office entered the survey into SurveyMonkey software to send to all A.S.P.E.N. members introduced in a newsletter. Results of the survey tool suggested that most clinicians are in agreement with what is imperative to minimize ethical dilemmas and improve end-of-life decision making. Overall, there was no significant difference between disciplines in how to improve clinical ethics application in nutrition care. Therefore, further research should investigate the possibility of establishing standardized practice guidelines which will allow clinicians to incorporate evidence-based practice in bioethics and nutrition support.