Peer-reviewed article
Trauma-informed care and ethics consultation in the NICU.
Trauma-informed care responds to our current understanding of the ways in which people's traumatic life experiences influence both their health and their interactions with the health care system. Many ethics consults arise because those…
Trauma-informed care responds to our current understanding of the ways in which people's traumatic life experiences influence both their health and their interactions with the health care system. Many ethics consults arise because those past traumatic life experiences are not recognized and addressed. In this paper, we present a NICU case that led to an ethics consultation about end-of-life decisions for a dying baby. We illustrate the ways in which a trauma-informed approach helped doctors, nurses and ethics consultants to better understand and care for the mother and baby.
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About the author
John D. Lantos is a pediatrician and bioethicist writing on AI in medicine, neonatal intensive care, and end-of-life decisions. His essays appear in JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Aeon. Read more about John.