ESICM Talk: episode 6

ESICM Talk is a new podcasts series on noteworthy intensive care topics.

In this sixth episode, NEXT Committee member Dr Burcin Halacli talks with Associate Professor Erwin Kompanje. He is clinical ethicist and clinical researcher at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Intensive Care in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

We are confronted daily with complex ethical issues during the care of our patients in intensive care units. The principles of biomedical ethics may guide us with regard to concerns for ethical decision-making.

Although globalisation brings enormous richness and diversity through multicultural structures, ethical issues may challenge intensivists in these conditions. However, the ‘moral stresses’ that health professionals experience are almost always ignored.