Health Care Ethics Consultation: Nature, Goals, and Competencies: A Position Paper from the Society for Health and Human Values–Society for Bioethics Consultation Task Force on Standards for Bioethics Consultation

4 July 2000 | Volume 133 Issue 1 | Pages 59-69

Patients, families, and health care providers have a right to expect that ethics consultants can deal competently with the complex issues that they are asked to address. The Society for Health and Human Values–Society for Bioethics Consultation Task Force on Standards for Bioethics Consultation explored core competencies and related issues in ethics consultation. This position paper summarizes the content of the resulting Task Force Report, which included nine general conclusions: 1) U.S. societal context makes "ethics facilitation" an appropriate approach to ethics consultation; 2) ethics facilitation requires certain core competencies; 3) core competencies can be acquired in various ways; 4) individual consultants, teams, or committees should have the core competencies for ethics consultation; 5) consult services should have policies that address access, patient notification, documentation, and case review; 6) abuse of power and conflicts of interest must be avoided; 7) ethics consultation must have institutional support; 8) evaluation of process, outcomes, and competencies is needed; and 9) certification of individuals and accreditation of programs are rejected.

*For members of the Society for Health and Human Values–Society for Bioethics Consultation Task Force on Standards for Bioethics Consultation, see Appendix 1.

Author and Article Information

From University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Grant Support: The Society of Health and Human Values–Society for Bioethics Consultation Task Force on Standards for Bioethics Consultation is supported by a grant from the Greenwall Foundation and contributions from numerous other organizations, centers, and networks. The Soros Foundation supported the participation of Robert M. Arnold and Steven Miles as Faculty Scholars for the Open Society, Project on Death in America.

Requests for Single Reprints: Mark P. Aulisio, PhD, Consortium Ethics Program, University of Pittsburgh, Center for Bioethnics and Health Law, Medical Arts Building, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Suite 300, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; e-mail, maa13{at}pitt.edu.

Requests To Purchase Bulk Reprints (minimum, 100 copies): the Reprints Coordinator; phone, 215-351-2657; e-mail, reprints{at}mail.acponline.org.

Current Author Addresses: Dr. Aulisio: Consortium Ethics Program, University of Pittsburgh, Center for Medical Ethics, Medical Arts Building, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Suite 300, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Dr. Arnold: University of Pittsburgh, Montefiore Hospital, 200 Lothrop Street, Suite W-919, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Dr. Youngner: Case Western Reserve University, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106.