Book excerpt: Here is an overview of many of the ethical challenges facing health care practitioners today. Health providers striving for the appropriate balance between human rights and values and the objectives within their professions confront many ethical dilemmas. This helpful book explores such dilemmas from practical and philosophical perspectives and helps practitioners successfully navigate through the maze of concerns they face on a daily basis. With Ethics and Values in Long Term Health Care, readers can develop new modes of ethical thinking that will enhance their practice as they improve the quality of life of the elderly they serve. The book presents information that can be used as a catalyst for innovative thinking and a guide for positive action. Readers are encouraged to apply the lessons contained in this book to practical decisionmaking in their respective health professions. Chapters assist health practitioners and others in thinking more in-depth about the impact of their personal ethics and values on service delivery, and help them to broaden their views and enhance their decisionmaking skills. The book has a broad scope and is divided into four sections which address: Practitioner Knowledge Caregiving End of Life Choices Health Care Reform Ethics and Values in Long Term Health Care helps prepare health care professionals to confront some of the major ethics and values challenges of the 1990s and beyond. This book can be used as a guide to ethical awareness, as well as a tool for teaching ethics and values or for developing programs and workshops.