Clinical Ethicist/Nurse Ethicist - Atlantic Health System

Quality of Care: Uses expert clinical, philosophical, and theoretical knowledge and insight related to the patient/family understanding to identify ethical conflict and help initiate a plan of action in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary team.

Education:  Develops and provides educational programs and conferences related to ethics for staff, other departments, and the community. Supports socialization, education, and training of novice clinical ethicists by serving as a preceptor, role model, and mentor. Coordinates/participates in community education programs. Organizes and conducts supportive counseling and education for patient and family groups. 

Administration: Assists in the development and implementation of hospital-wide goals related to staff and patient/family support. Promotes recruitment and retention by providing staff and student guidance, support, and professional development, with a special focus on the nursing population. Promotes a positive hospital image through participation in community programs, professional programs, networking in a professional organization, and university affiliation. Assists and participates in preparing for JC, DOH & other regulatory agency visits. Assists with implementing policies, guidelines, and recommendations of the regulatory bodies. 

Individual Practice Evaluation: Uses critical, reflective thinking to evaluate one’s professional performance and to enhance one’s ethical practice-enabling decisions which are based on professional, ethical, and moral principles rather than on personal biases or preferences. Ensures self-evaluation is according to the standards of the appropriate professional and regulatory bodies and takes action to improve practice. 

Ethics: Fosters the establishment of an ethical environment that supports the rights of all participants. Contributes to the resolution of ethical dilemmas. Preserves and protects patient autonomy and maintains confidentiality. Manages bioethics-related issues at their designated hospital. Provides expert analysis on ethical issues related to patient care. Responsible for receiving and conducting all requests for ethics consultations, executing consultations, and following up with patient cases after referral. Advises on ethics inquiries from physicians, staff, patients, and families.

Research: Critically evaluates existing practice based on current research findings and integrates changes into practice. Collaborates with senior investigators and interdisciplinary team members in conducting research relevant to practice. Assesses and identifies relevant researchable clinical problems with staff. 

Resource Utilization: Evaluates factors related to safety, effectiveness, availability, and cost to design and implement best, just practices. Facilitates equitable access for patients and family members to appropriate healthcare services. Serves as a resource to various populations to influence ethical obligations of the hospital based on autonomy, benefice justice, and non-maleficence in healthcare delivery and the formation of ethical healthcare policy.

Collegiality: Identifies and participates in opportunities to share skills, knowledge, and strategies for patient advocacy and system improvement with colleagues and other healthcare providers. Promotes a learning environment that enables clinical team members and other healthcare personnel to make optimal contributions and systems to function effectively. Participates in professional organizations to address issues of concern in meeting patient care needs and improving professional practice and system effectiveness.

Collaboration: Collaborates with other disciplines in consultation, teaching, patient advocacy, and research activities to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient.  Collaborates with the nursing and medical staff education departments and other advanced practice clinicians to develop and implement educational programs about ethics such as Schwartz rounds and didactic teaching related to newly hired health professionals. 

Education

• Master’s Degree in Nursing and HEC-C certification by ASBH or Master’s Degree in Bioethics required

Relevant Experience

• Previous experience in clinical ethics in an acute care setting

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