Suffering Justice and Biomedical Ethics in Recent Doctoral Dissertations

Suffering, Justice, and Biomedical Ethics in Recent Doctoral Dissertations Jonathon Erlen, PhD, MSLS and Ammon Ripple, MLS Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA Tools to Find Dissertations in Biomedical Ethics Recent Dissertations in the Medical Humanities http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/histmed/researchresources/dissertations/ These dissertations have been selected based on a comprehensive, manual search of the print Dissertation Abstracts International index. They are listed on the HSLS Web site under appropriate broad subject headings and are able to be viewed by anyone on the Internet who wants to stay up to date on new dissertations in these areas. Dr. Jonathon Erlen manually searches print volumes of Dissertation Abstracts International to identify recent dissertations on topics related to medical humanities to be added monthly to the HSLS Web site. This method helps to identify dissertations that are not easily found in the online version (ProQuest Digital Dissertations) and allows for a more comprehensive search. Keyword searching is not always the most reliable search method for finding biomedical ethics dissertations because the topics are very complex and multi-faceted. Additional Dissertation Resources: The ProQuest database listed above is the most comprehensive database of dissertations and abstracts. The following resources may include additional dissertations not found in the ProQuest database and may provide free full text if you do not have access to electronic dissertations via ProQuest. WorldCat, available on the OCLC FirstSearch system, includes basic information about dissertations and other publications held in about 50,000 libraries in North America and Europe (note that the dissertation records do not typically include abstracts). Check with your librarian to see if your institution has a subscription. Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations http://www.ndltd.org Foreign Doctoral Dissertations database from the Center for Research Libraries http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=5&l2=23&l3=44&l4=25 Dissertation Abstracts International includes doctoral dissertations from over 1,000 universities worldwide as well as selected master's theses. Citations and abstracts are arranged under detailed subject headings in the print index. This photo illustrates the plight of the untold thousands of immigrants who came to the United States from Europe and Asia in the last half of the 19th century. Urban life for America’s working poor was a combination of poor housing, bad nutrition, and the constant danger of life threatening diseases. Poverty imprisoned these people into a life of suffering and injustice. Index to Theses (Great Britain and Ireland) http://www.theses.com/ Australian Digital Theses http://www.library.qut.edu.au/adt/ Theses Canada Portal http://www.collectionscanada.ca/thesescanada/ Note that selected dissertations (citation and abstracts only) are also included in some bibliographic databases, including: PsycINFO CINAHL EconLit Sociological Abstracts EMBASE America: History and Life Historical Abstracts History of Science, Technology and Medicine Introduction and Background During the past five years the number and scope of doctoral dissertations related to biomedical ethics has greatly expanded. The majority of these studies no longer are produced in philosophy and ethics programs; rather they are coming from a multitude of diverse academic disciplines. The topics they examine run the gamut of biomedical ethics issues. Prominent among these topics are dissertations examining various aspects of suffering and justice. Biomedical ethics, long the province of a small group of scholars, is expanding into a much broader range of scholarship. Individuals working in this field now need to know about and embrace their ever-expanding discipline by searching for dissertations and other research published outside of their field. Sample Dissertations With Suffering and Justice Themes ProQuest Digital Dissertations (soon to be ProQuest Dissertations and Theses ) Is the online version of Dissertation Abstracts International and includes more than 2 million dissertations and theses from over 1,000 universities worldwide in all subject areas. It includes dissertations written from 1861 to the present and hundreds of master's theses from participating institutions. Author-supplied abstracts are included for most dissertations published since 1980 and full text PDF files are available for many dissertations published since 1997. Keyword searching capabilities provide many benefits, but also create the risk of missing significant titles. Justice, health care and budgeting by De Haan, Neil, Jr., PhD Graduate Program in Public Administration RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY - NEWARK, 2004 We survived: Health care choices of Appalachian African Americans by Hosley, Brenda Lea, PhD Department of Sociology UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, 2004 Physician trust, access to care, use of care, and satisfaction with care among women by Wiltshire, Jacqueline C., PhD Department of Health Services Administration, School of Health Related Professions UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 2003 Age-related variations in trauma care and implications for health care systems: Do we discriminate against the elderly? by Chang, David C., PhD Department of Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, 2004 New Mexico Medicaid: Children access to health care, utilization and Medicaid expenditure by Her, Pao Ze, PhD Department of Economics UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, 2004 Major themes in recent dissertations on suffering and justice include: • • • • • age bias in the delivery of medical care public health administration’s role in allocating scare resources states’ ability to cover Medicaid expenses for children influence of race on doctor/patient relationships how women’s distrust of their physicians leads to poor access to health care • Appalachian African American women’s blending of folk traditions with biomedicine • challenges to Norman Daniels’ views of a just health care system Academic disciplines that produce dissertations focusing on biomedical ethics are many and varied, including: • • • • • • • Gerontology Business Administration Economics Sociology Public Health Women’s Studies Health Care Management Clicking on the title links the user to the abstract and full text in the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database. The user must be part of an institution that subscribes to the ProQuest database to view abstracts and full text. Race, physician-patient concordance, and social distance: Effects on communication and participation in medical visits by Johnson, Rachel L., PhD Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Bloomberg School of Public Health JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, 2004 Beyond 'Just Health Care' (Norman Daniels) by Wolf, Allison Brooke, PhD Department of Philosophy MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, 2004