Preventive Ethics Through Expanding Education

Abstract

Healthcare institutions have been making increasing efforts to standardize consultation methodology and to accredit both bioethics training programs and the consultants accordingly. The focus has traditionally been on the ethics consultation as the relevant unit of ethics intervention. Outcome measures are studied in relation to consultations, and the hidden assumption is that consultations are the preferred or best way to address day-to-day ethical dilemmas. Reflecting on the data from an internal quality improvement survey and the literature, we argue that having general ethics education as a key function of ethics services may be more important in meeting the contemporaneous needs of acute care settings. An expanded and varied ethics education, with attention to the time constraints of healthcare workers' schedules, was a key recommendation brought forward by survey respondents. Promoting ethical reflection and creating a culture of ethics may serve to prevent ethical dilemmas or mitigate their effects.

The Role of Ethics in Reducing and Improving the Quality of Coercion in Mental Health Care

“…Similar to the arguments from (Ho et al 2016), we find that CES could profit from drawing more on the insights of those institutional ethical approaches that align with the ways professionals and institutions work in quality development more generally. 'Integrated ethics' (Fox et al 2010), or 'responsible research innovation' (Schomberg 2012) might offer valuable contributions to CES.…”

“…by re-organising the services) and providing practical advice about value-based leadership and integrated ways of conducting moral deliberations, both of which were found to be important by this study. These ethical approaches in education and work life could contribute to reduced moral stress (Ho et al 2016;Pauly et al 2012).…”

Ethics Consultation Requests After Implementation of an Electronic Health Record Order

“…This finding might reflect inadequate education for those parties about the new consultation process or ethics services in general, which has been shown to be a critical part of creating a culture of ethics. 14,15 In our experience, nonmedical providers who do not initiate EHR orders regularly in their roles have decreased familiarity with the electronic order process and may requiring guidance or ask other team members to place consultation requests. Nonetheless, data on ethics consultation requests by these categories of health care professionals are scarce.…”

The role of ethicists in pediatric hematology/oncology: Current status and future needs

“…As ethics consultation services have expanded to meet increased consultation volume, many now focus efforts on preventive ethics as a form of ethics practice. Preventive ethics, in contrast to ethics consultation after an ethically complex situation has arisen, aims to identify ethically salient concerns before they result in distress 20 . Ethics education of healthcare providers plays a major role in preventive ethics.…”

“…Preventive ethics, in contrast to ethics consultation after an ethically complex situation has arisen, aims to identify ethically salient concerns before they result in distress. 20 Ethics education of healthcare providers plays a major role in preventive ethics.…”