HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

In 2009 and 2010, there were a number of new educational initiatives worthy of highlighting:

• Ethics for Residents Series.  In the Fall of 2009 and again in the Spring of 2010, the Center offered the Ethics for Residents series as part of the Hospital Wide Competency Program: Preparing Residents for Practice.  These one-hour interactive presentations were delivered to residents monthly.  The topics included: “What is Clinical Ethics and Why Does It Matter?” “Informed Consent in a Multi-Cultural Context;” “Confidentiality, Privacy, & Duty to Warn;” “End of Life Decision Making Accounting for Difference;” and “Ethics and Professionalism: The Role of Personal Values in Professional Life.”  The presentations were repeated in the Fall of 2010 and currently taking place in Spring of 2011. 

• 1-Day Intensive Seminar in Clinical Ethics.  In the spring of 2010, the CBME staff, with Jason Gatliff as the lead, developed a collaborative seminar with the Integrated Ethics Program at the Cleveland Louis Stokes VAMC.  The seminar, “Ethics in Practice” focused on two areas: “The Fundamentals of Clinical Ethics Consultation, and, “Managing Ethical Issues at the End of Life.”  The seminar was intended to help health care professionals understand the role and goals of ethics consultation as well as ethical issues and decision making at the end of life.  To convey information about consultation, the following were provided: “ethics consultation toolkit;”presentations regarding ethics programs, consults and services; ethics and the law; and goals of ethics consultation.  End of life issues were addressed through: case examples; explanations of decision making; and a palliative care panel discussion.  This seminar was well received and is being adapted and presented to a variety of audiences. The seminar was offered again to both MetroHealth and VA employees in the spring of 2011. 

The Clinical Ethics Program has also offered or participated in the following selected educational sessions for health professionals and others at MetroHealth, CWRU and outside the MHS system:

“Understanding the Decision Making Process and Cultural Competency,” Chillichothe VA Medical Center, May 2010. (Gatliff)

“Resource Allocation,” VISN 10 IntegratedEthics Training Series, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, March 2010. (Gatliff)

“Justice in Health Care?” Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH April 2010. (Aulisio)

“Discharging Patients with a History of Substance Abuse and IV Access: Some Ethical Consideration” Integrated Ethics Brown Bag Series, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, April 2010. (Gatliff)

“The Greening of Health Care Facilities: A Look at Making Metro ‘Green’,” System Services Department, MetroHealth Medical Center, January 2010. (Phetteplace and Aulisio)

“Who’s Who in Medical decision making: Understanding complexities in surrogate decision making” Integrated Ethics Brown Bag Series, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, November 2009. (Gatliff)

“Ethics Consultation Service: Who we are, What we do, How we can help,” Community Based Outpatient Clinic Continuing Medical Education, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, October 2009. (Gatliff)

“Compounding Tragedy: The Dangerous Dynamics of Health Professional-Patient/Parent Communication in Hard Cases,” Perinatal Loss Group, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, September 2009. (Aulisio)

“Ethical Issues for Emergency Medicine Residents,” MetroHealth Medical Center Emergency Medicine Residency Program (in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic), August 2009. (Aulisio and Gatliff)

“Caregivers Caring for Family Members: Yes, No, Maybe?” Community Nurses Group, Broadway Clement Center, MetroHealth System, Cleveland, Ohio, August 2009. (Mark Aulisio and Marcia Bailey)

Medical Ethics Committee Education (for more information see “Ethics Committee”)

• Ethics Committee educational outreach for 2009 focused on the theme of health professionals caring for family members or significant others in the hospital in their professional role.  Nursing was a particular focus for this outreach given the lack of guidance from the State Board of Nursing and the American Nurses Association on this matter. 

• Ethics Committee educational outreach for 2010 focused on the problematic concept of medical futility. Presentations were offered in a number of departments including Social Work, Nursing and Medicine.