Objectives

1. Identify how education can serve as an ethics “preventive” strategy.

2. Describe the ive strategies that help prevent ethical issues from arising.

3. Give examples of how the varied knowledge and skills of HEC members can serve as an asset for HEC preventive education.

Case

Joan Johnson is a nursing director in a moderate-sized teaching hospital. She has served for 2 years on the hospital’s ethics committee (HEC) and feels that, while well supported, the HEC service should have a more robust commitment to ethics education in order to avert at least some of the myriad ethical issues that the institution is seeing. For instance, the state legislature recently adopted a detailed new law that outlines surrogate decision-making when a patient lacks capacity for healthcare decision-making. In turn, the institution adopted a new withdrawal of treatment policy that closely mirrors the state law, but also reflects some best practices as outlined in the literature. Given that she still sees problems arise around family decision-making and that her own nurses are confused by questions of surrogacy, Joan would not only like to see this policy disseminated among clinical staff members, but also like to see a robust educational program around this very important topic.